Peux-tu me passer le sel, s'il te plaît ?

Peux-tu is the inverted form used to ask a question in a more standard or slightly more formal way.

• Tu peux = you can
• Peux-tu ? = can you?

French often forms yes/no questions by inverting the verb and subject pronoun:

• Tu peux me passer le sel. = You can pass me the salt.
• Peux-tu me passer le sel ? = Can you pass me the salt?

In everyday spoken French, many people also say:

• Tu peux me passer le sel, s'il te plaît ?

That is very common and natural too.

In French, when a question is formed by inversion, the verb and subject pronoun are connected with a hyphen.

So:

• peux-tu
• avez-vous
• est-il

The hyphen is required in this structure. It is a spelling rule, not optional punctuation.

Peux is a form of the verb pouvoir, which means to be able to or can.

Here are a few present-tense forms:

• je peux = I can
• tu peux = you can
• il/elle peut = he/she can
• nous pouvons = we can
• vous pouvez = you can
• ils/elles peuvent = they can

So peux-tu literally means can you.

Me is the object pronoun meaning me or to me, and in French object pronouns usually come before the verb.

So:

• me passer = pass to me / pass me

In English, we say pass me the salt, with me after the verb.
In French, the pronoun moves before the infinitive:

• Peux-tu me passer le sel ?

This is very normal in French grammar.

Here passer means something like to pass or to hand over.

In a table situation, passer le sel means:

• pass the salt
• hand me the salt

The verb passer has many meanings in French depending on context, but in this sentence it is the common “pass/hand” meaning.

French usually uses an article where English sometimes does not.

So French says:

• le sel = the salt

Even though in English we naturally say pass the salt, this is also exactly what French does here. In many everyday contexts, French nouns need an article:

• le pain = the bread
• le beurre = the butter
• l'eau = the water

Using just sel here would sound incomplete.

Literally, s'il te plaît means something like:

• if it pleases you

It is the standard way to say please in an informal singular context.

Breakdown:

• si = if
• il = it
• te = to you
• plaît = pleases

So literally: if it pleases you.

But you should think of it simply as please.

Te is the informal singular form of you, used with tu.

Because the sentence begins with Peux-tu..., it is already addressing one person informally, so s'il te plaît matches that.

If you are speaking formally or to more than one person, you would use:

• Pouvez-vous me passer le sel, s'il vous plaît ?

So:

• tu / te = informal singular
• vous / vous = formal singular or plural

Yes. That is very common and completely natural in everyday spoken French.

Compare:

• Peux-tu me passer le sel ? = slightly more structured, standard question form
• Tu peux me passer le sel ? = very common spoken French

Both are correct.
Adding s'il te plaît makes either one polite.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

puh-tu muh pah-say luh sell, seel tuh pleh

A few notes:

• Peux sounds roughly like peu; the x is not pronounced.
• tu sounds like too, but with a French u sound, which is different from English.
• passer sounds like pah-say.
• sel sounds like sell.
• plaît sounds like pleh.

A more French-like IPA pronunciation would be approximately:

/pø.ty mə pa.se lə sɛl sil tə plɛ/

Yes. It is polite, especially because of s'il te plaît.

Without s'il te plaît, it is still understandable and not necessarily rude, but adding it makes the request gentler.

Very polite versions include:

• Peux-tu me passer le sel, s'il te plaît ? — polite, informal
• Pouvez-vous me passer le sel, s'il vous plaît ? — polite, formal or plural

Yes, in French, using can you with pouvoir is a very normal way to make a request, just as in English.

So Peux-tu me passer le sel ? does not sound strange or overly literal. It is a standard and natural request.

French also has other possible ways to ask, such as:

• Tu me passes le sel ? = Will you pass me the salt?
• Passe-moi le sel, s'il te plaît. = Pass me the salt, please.

But Peux-tu me passer le sel ? is absolutely normal.

The formal version is:

Pouvez-vous me passer le sel, s'il vous plaît ?

Changes:

• peux-tu → pouvez-vous
• te → vous

This version is used:

• with someone you do not know well
• in a more formal setting
• with more than one person

So the original sentence is the informal singular version.