Comment bien utiliser " Il y a " 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 un chaton dans cette tasse. There's a kitten in this cup. 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. 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 chaton ? Is there a kitten? 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 chaton ? Is there a kitten? 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?" Note: The only correct inversion spelling is y a-t-il, with exactly two hyphens and no apostrophes. Please avoid y-a-t-il, y-a-t'il, y a-t'il, y a-til, y a til, etc. 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 chaton dans cette tasse. There is no kitten in that cup. 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 chaton... There was a kitten... Il y aura des chatons... There will be some kittens... Il n'y a pas eu de chaton... There was no kitten...