This afternoon, I ordered a coffee — a strong one, un café corsé. As I ordered, I heard a woman talking on her mobile. The person she was speaking to couldn’t hear her.
Maybe you’ll remember this question from entry #682, asked by a girl in her 20s speaking on the phone:
Tu m’entends-tu?
Can you hear me?
This is also how the woman today asked if she could be heard. In fact, she asked the question a few times. One of the other ways she asked the questions was:
Est-ce que tu m’entends?
Can you hear me?
The first question (tu m’entends-tu?) uses the informal yes-no question marker tu to ask the question. You can read more about asking yes-no questions with tu in this guide.
The woman speaking on the phone used tu m’entends-tu? and est-ce que tu m’entends? interchangeably. Because she used the form tu m’entends-tu?, we know that she was speaking to someone she’s on familiar terms with.
A call centre representative is very unlikely to ask a customer on the phone who has trouble hearing: tu m’entends-tu? It’s too informal sounding. It’s okay to use tu m’entends-tu? with a friend, though.
