Pronunciation: [ee lya]
Meaning: there is, there are
Literal translation: it has there
Register: normal
Notes: The French expression il y a, which can mean « there is » or « there are, » is one of the most important expressions in the French language. It is most commonly followed by an indefinite article + noun, a number + noun, or an indefinite pronoun.
Il y a des enfants là-bas.
There are some kids over there.
Il y a un chat dans la voiture.
There’s a cat in the car.
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.
Il y a may be 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.
To ask a question with il y a, 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 and place -t- between them (why?):
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’enfants y a-t-il ?
How many kids are there?
Qu’est-ce qu’il y a ? and Qu’y a-t-il ? mean « What’s wrong? »
To use il y a in a negative construction, place n’ (why not ne?) in front of y and pas after a. Remember that the indefinite article must 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.
Il y a is made up of three words
1) il – the subject « it »
2) y – the adverbial pronoun « there »
3) a – the third person singular present tense of avoir – « to have »
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 was no cat…
Mon École-French School 