Oh, There It Is: “Il y a”
Il y a, or there is/are is one of the most important grammar constructions to learn in French. It is made up of three parts:
il – it
y – there
a – conjugated form of avoir (to have)
There are three constructions you will encounter the most. They are:
Il y a + INDEFINITE ARTICLE + NOUN
Example:
Il y a un lapin dans la forêt. There’s a rabbit in the forest.
Il y a + NUMBER + NOUN
Example:
Il y a + INDEFINITE PRONOUN
Example:
You will occasionally see il y a paired with a period of time, which changes its meaning to ago.
Example:
Il y a trois semaines que je suis tombée amoureuse de lui.
I fell in love with him three weeks ago.
Conjugating “Il y a” for Imparfait and Le Futur:
Because the a in il y a is the third person singular conjugation of avoir, it is as simple as conjugating for the tense to say things like there was or there will be.
Let’s take a look at the imparfait form first.
Example:
Il y avait un homme dans le tableau. There was a man in the painting.
The conjugation a is the third person singular form of avoir, which relates to he, she, and it. This means that we use avait, which is the third person singular imparfait form, for this sentence. Since we always use the third person singular a for the present tense of il y a, avait will always be used for imparfait. This makes it easy to remember.Now we will see an example of il y a with le futur.
Example:
Il y aura des crocodiles dans le marais. There will be crocodiles in the swamp.
Since the third person singular future tense form of avoir is aura, we will always use this conjugation for the future tense of il y a.
Now we will use il y a to ask questions.