What does: Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? mean?

Trouble with my son's french homework!

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Peregord on November 30, 2009 at 1:41am

By the way - I think it means "what does he have?"

Permalink Reply by Marc Vonhalmen on November 30, 2009 at 2:19am

No, that would be "Qu'est-ce qu'il a ?".

"Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ?" has a lot of possible translations, depending on the context. Here are probably the most frequent ones:
What it is?
What is going on?

Note: "il y a" means "there is"

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on November 30, 2009 at 3:42am

Another common interpretation would be "What's up?", "What's the matter?", "What's wrong?"

In informal speech, it's usually shortened to Qu'est-ce qu'y a?

Permalink Reply by Karson Crass on December 3, 2009 at 3:55pm

"est-ce que" translates directly as "is it that", but obviously the natives don't really use it the way we would. "Il y a" translates as "there is" so the direct translation of "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a?" is "What is it that there is?" but of course with native speakers it wouldn't sound that awkward and can mean different things like "What's up?" or "What is there?"

Permalink Reply by jemma on January 13, 2010 at 4:37pm

qu'est-ce qu'il y a = what's the matter
Qu'est-ce qu'elle a = whats up with her ........ so forth .

Permalink Reply by Emily Stevenson on October 11, 2010 at 8:52pm

Wrong, it means what is there?

Permalink Reply by Hannah V Gelmotto on October 11, 2010 at 9:22pm

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a means what is there as in... say your mom said "What is there outside?" something along those lines