Salut!
Nice
to see you again in my French Blog.
Today we are going to study another idiomatic expression. It’s “Il y a”
In
English, we often use phrases like ''there is" and ''there are" to
refer to the general existence of things. In French, this is done with the
phrase “Il y a”.
The
French word y is an object pronoun. In this construction, it is the rough
equivalent of the English ''there." Even when il y a is used with a plural
or feminine object, the subject and verb don't change. This is a French
idiomatic expression
that
does not translate literally./
IL Y A UN BON FILM AU
CINEMA.
(THERE IS A GOOD FILM AT
THE THEATRE.)
IL Y A UNE GRANDE VEDETTE
EN VILLE.
(THERE IS A BIG STAR IN
TOWN.)
You
can also use the construction “Il y a” as a question to ask if something exists
as we do in English with Is there/ Are there.
You
could use the phrase est-ce que in
front of it to form the question, or you can use inversion. When inversion is
used, however, the pronoun retains its regular position in front of the verb,
so you must insert a t in between.
Y A-T-IL UN BON FILM ICI?
(IS THERE A GOOD FILM
HERE?)
Y A-T-IL UNE FEMME ICI?
(IS THERE A LADY PRESENT?)
Et
Voilà, c’est tout pour aujourd’hui.
I
hope you have enjoyed with your new French lesson.
See
you soon.
