Il y a - French Expression
Il y a - there is or there are - is one of the most important expressions in the French language. Il y a is often followed by an indefinite article or a number + noun.
| Il y a un chat dans la voiture. | There's a cat in the car. |
| Il y a des enfants là-bas. | There are some kids over there. |
| Il y a deux choses à faire. | There are two things to do. |
| Il y a quelqu'un à la porte. | There's someone at the door. |
To use il y a in a negative
construction, place n' in front of y
(remember that ne
contracts to n' in front of y) and pas after a.
Note that the indefinite article will change to de due to the negative
construction (learn more):
| Il n'y a pas de chat dans la voiture. | There is not a cat in the car. |
| Il n'y a pas d'enfants là-bas. | There aren't any kids over there. |
To make a question, you can either use est-ce
que or inversion.
| Est-ce qu'il y a un chat ? | Is there a cat? |
| Est-ce qu'il y a des enfants ? | Are there any kids ? |
For inversion, place y first, then invert il and a. Because you will end up with two vowels side by side, you must add a t between them in order to maintain the fluidity that the French language is known for (learn more):
| Y a-t-il un chat ? | Is there a cat? |
| Y a-t-il des enfants ? | Are there any kids? |
Il y a can also be used with interrogative words:
| Pourquoi est-ce qu'il y a un chat dans mon lit ? | Why is there a cat in my bed? |
| Combien d'étudiants y a-t-il ? | How many students are there? |
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ? and Qu'y a-t-il ? mean What's wrong?
Il y a is followed by a period of time to mean ago
(not to be confused with depuis)
| J'ai vu le film il y a trois semaines. | I saw the movie three weeks ago. |
| Il y a 2 ans que nous sommes partis. | We left two years ago. |
Il y a is made up of three words
- il - the subject it
- y - the pronoun there
- a - the third person singular present tense of avoir (to have)
In order to use il y a in another tense, simply conjugate avoir into that tense:
| Il y avait un chat... | There was a cat... |
| Il y aura des chats... | There will be some cats... |
| Il n'y a pas eu de chat... | There were no cats... |
| Test on il y a
Depuis vs Il y a Other useful expressions: C'est and Il est |
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