French grammar
Il y a: there is and there are in French
Il y a is the French phrase for both there is and there are: one form, singular or plural, said as a single sound (eel-YA). The negative is il n'y a pas de, and the de is bare: no article follows it. With des (some) and numbers you can describe a whole town in a few sentences.
In short
- il y a covers both there is and there are: il y a un parc, il y a des chats.
- Negative: il n'y a pas de. After pas the article drops: il n'y a pas de café, never pas un café.
- Plural some is des: il y a des hôtels ici. Singular takes un or une.
- To ask, keep the words and raise your voice at the end: Il y a un restaurant ?
Say what's there
«il y a» means there is and there are, one phrase for both (eel-YA, three words melted into one sound). «Il y a un parc», there's a park. Point it at «la ville», the town, and it describes everything in sight.
La ville
the town
Il y a un parc
There's a park.
J'aime le cinéma
I like the movies
Il y a une gare
there's a station
Il y a un café
there's a café
Say what's missing
«Il n'y a pas de café» — there's no café (eel nya pah duh). It's «il y a» wearing the n' squeeze you know from «n'aime» — and after «pas», the article steps aside: bare «de», no le or la. Sad news, delivered fluently.
Il n'y a pas de café
there's no café
Là-bas
over there
Il n'y a pas de gare
There's no station.
Il y a un parc ici
there's a park here
Some, and how many
«des» is some, the plural of un/une (pronounced like 'day'): «Il y a des chats ici», there are (some) cats here. Numbers work the same way: «deux chats», «trois chiens». The plural -s appears in writing, but «des» or the number does the talking.
Il y a des chats ici
there are cats here
Il y a des chiens ici
there are (some) dogs here
J'ai deux chats
I have two cats
J'aime les chats
I like cats
Practice this in Open Lingo
This page comes from the Open Lingo course. In the app it is a short interactive lesson with listening, speaking and spaced-repetition review. Free, and no account needed to try it.
Keep going
- Grammar guideFrench pluralsHow French plurals work: les for the, des for some, why the plural -s is silent, the partitive du and de la, and the z sound of liaison.
- Grammar guideLe vs laHow French noun gender works: when to use le, la, un, une and l', why meaning does not decide it, and how to learn the gender with the word.
- Word listPlaces vocabularyBeginner French words for places in town (la gare, le parc, l'hôtel) and rooms at home, with gender, pronunciation and audio from the Open Lingo course.
- ToolNumbers 1 to 100 and converterEvery French number from 0 to 100 in a printable table, a converter that writes out any number up to 999,999, and the rules behind 70, 80, 90 and et un.