Tu as des ciseaux ?

Tu means you when speaking to one person in an informal way.

You use tu with:

• friends
• family
• children
• people you know well

If you need to be more formal or polite, you would usually use vous instead:

• Vous avez des ciseaux ?

So Tu as des ciseaux ? is the informal version of Do you have scissors?

Because the verb here is avoir (to have), not être (to be).

The form as is the tu form of avoir in the present tense:

• j’ai = I have
• tu as = you have
• il/elle a = he/she has

So:

• Tu as = you have

A learner might confuse as with es, but es comes from être:

• tu es = you are

In spoken and informal French, you can often make a question just by using rising intonation.

So:

• Tu as des ciseaux. = You have scissors.
• Tu as des ciseaux ? = Do you have scissors?

The words stay in the same order, but the voice rises at the end.

This is very common in everyday French.

Yes. French has several ways to ask the same question.

Common versions are:

• Tu as des ciseaux ? — informal, very common in speech
• Est-ce que tu as des ciseaux ? — neutral, very common
• As-tu des ciseaux ? — more formal or written style

All three mean the same thing.

Here, des is the plural indefinite article. In English, it often corresponds to some or is simply left untranslated.

So:

• un ciseau = a scissor-like item (not normally how French uses it in everyday speech for actual scissors)
• des ciseaux = scissors

In this sentence, des helps show that the noun is plural.

Because in French, scissors is normally expressed as a plural noun: des ciseaux.

This is similar to English, where scissors is also grammatically plural.

So French says:

• des ciseaux = scissors

You will usually see it in the plural, not as un ciseau, when talking about the tool used for cutting paper, hair, etc.

Because this is not a negative sentence. It is simply a question:

• Tu as des ciseaux ? = Do you have scissors?

If you wanted to make it negative, you would say:

• Tu n’as pas de ciseaux. = You do not have any scissors.

Notice that in the negative, des usually changes to de:

• des ciseaux
• pas de ciseaux

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• tu ≈ tyoo but with a French u sound
• as ≈ ah
• des ≈ day
• ciseaux ≈ see-ZOH

Approximate full pronunciation:

• tyu ah day see-ZOH ?

A more accurate IPA transcription is:

• /ty a de sizo/

A few useful notes:

• the x in ciseaux is silent
• the final s in des is not pronounced here
• the question is mainly shown by intonation

No important liaison is made in these two places.

• tu as is pronounced smoothly as /ty a/
• des ciseaux is pronounced /de sizo/

The s in des is not a liaison sound here; it is simply not pronounced because ciseaux starts with a consonant sound.

Yes, absolutely. Tu as des ciseaux ? is a very natural everyday sentence.

It is exactly the kind of thing someone might say:

• at home
• in class
• in an office
• while doing crafts or cooking

If speaking politely to someone you do not know well, you would more likely say:

• Vous avez des ciseaux ?

Yes. In English, we often just say scissors without some, and French uses des ciseaux naturally in that same situation.

So Tu as des ciseaux ? can be understood as:

• Do you have scissors?
• Do you have some scissors?

In normal English, Do you have scissors? is the most natural translation.

In standard French typography, punctuation marks like ? ! : ; are typically preceded by a space.

So French writes:

• Tu as des ciseaux ?

This is normal in French writing, even though English does not usually put a space before a question mark.