In a scene from 19-2, Ben arrives back home from work in a bad mood. When he walks through the front door, he finds his son’s backpack lying in the entrance.
Ben’s tired of telling his son to pick up after himself. He loses his temper and starts yelling at his son, wanting to know whether or not it’s possible to be obeyed in his own house:
Ya-tu moyen d’être obéi dans cette maison-là?!?
[Said by the character Ben in 19-2, season 1, episode 2, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 9 February 2011.]
What does ya-tu moyen de mean?
You already know that il y a is often pronounced informally as ya. That takes care of the first part. As for -tu, this is another example of that informal yes-no question word that occurs in relaxed speech.
So, [ya][-tu][moyen de] means [il y a][oui ou non][moyen de]. In other words, ya-tu is just an informal way of saying est-ce qu’il y a.
We could translate the quote above as: “Any chance of being obeyed in this house?!?” or “Any way I might be obeyed in this house?!?”
Here’s another example of this: Ya-tu moyen de savoir de quoi tu parles?! Remember, this is an informal example from relaxed speech. You won’t come across ya-tu in careful writing or speech.
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