Peux-tu débarrasser la table après le dîner ?

Peux-tu means can you.

It comes from the statement tu peux = you can.
To turn it into a question in a more standard written/spoken form, French often uses inversion:

• tu peux → peux-tu ?

The hyphen is required in this inverted question form.

In real use, it is usually understood as a request, not a literal question about ability.

So even though it literally looks like Can you clear the table...?, it often means something like:

• Can you clear the table after dinner?
• Could you clear the table after dinner?

French uses pouvoir in this way very naturally to make requests.

Yes. Tu is the informal singular form of you.

This sentence is appropriate when speaking to:

• a family member
• a friend
• a child
• someone you know well

If you wanted the formal or plural version, you would say:

• Pouvez-vous débarrasser la table après le dîner ?

That can mean either Can you clear the table...? to one person formally, or Can you all clear the table...?

Yes, absolutely.

These are both correct:

• Peux-tu débarrasser la table après le dîner ?
• Est-ce que tu peux débarrasser la table après le dîner ?

They mean the same thing. The difference is mainly style:

• Peux-tu... ? = more concise, a bit more structured or standard
• Est-ce que tu peux... ? = very common in everyday speech

Here, débarrasser means to clear or to clear away.

So débarrasser la table means:

• remove the plates, glasses, cutlery, etc. from the table after eating

It does not usually mean to wash the dishes or to wipe the table, although those actions might happen afterward.

Because in this expression, la table is the direct object of the verb.

French commonly says:

• débarrasser la table = to clear the table

The idea is that you are making the table free of dishes and other items.

You may also hear related expressions with de, but in this common household phrase, débarrasser la table is the normal wording.

Literally, it means the table, but the expression really refers to removing what is on the table.

So débarrasser la table does not mean carrying the table away.
It means clearing away:

• plates
• glasses
• napkins
• cutlery
• serving dishes

This is just a fixed everyday expression.

Après le dîner means after dinner.

Breakdown:

• après = after
• le dîner = dinner

So the sentence is asking for the action to happen after the meal, not immediately in the middle of it.

In French, nouns usually need an article much more often than in English.

So French normally says:

• après le dîner = after dinner

Even though English often drops the article in expressions like after dinner, French usually keeps it.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

puh-tu day-bah-rah-say lah tahbl ah-pre luh dee-nay

A few useful notes:

• peux sounds roughly like puh but with rounded lips
• the x in peux is silent
• tu sounds like tyü, a sound English does not have exactly
• débarrasser has the stress pattern typical of French, with no strong English-style word stress
• table ends with a soft l sound; the e is not strongly pronounced

It depends on the tone you want.

This sentence:

• Peux-tu débarrasser la table après le dîner ?

sounds like a request.

The imperative:

• Débarrasse la table après le dîner.

sounds more like a direct instruction or command.

So if you want to sound softer or more polite, Peux-tu... ? is often better.

Yes. A few common options are:

• Pourrais-tu débarrasser la table après le dîner ?
  = Could you clear the table after dinner?

• Est-ce que tu pourrais débarrasser la table après le dîner ?
  = slightly softer and very natural

• Peux-tu, s’il te plaît, débarrasser la table après le dîner ?
  = Can you, please, clear the table after dinner?

Adding s’il te plaît makes it more explicitly polite in an informal context.

Peux is the present tense of pouvoir for tu:

• je peux
• tu peux
• il/elle/on peut

In the question Peux-tu... ?, the form is still the same present-tense tu form; the word order is just inverted.

So it is literally:

• can-you

rather than a different tense or mood.