67 - How to Say “There Is” & “There Are” in French

 
 

Listen to this episode to find out how to say “there is” & “there are” in French. 🤓

If you’d prefer to listen on the go, listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Links & Cheat Sheet

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the French Made Easy podcast, where I give you all the basics you need to speak French clearly and confidently. I'm your host, Mathilde, and I'm a French teacher, mumpreneur, and bread and cheese lover. Join me as I dive into all things French for beginners, and deliver to you bite-sized and easy-to-follow lessons every Tuesday. Let's get started, "on commence"!

Hello everyone! Bonjour à tous! Welcome back to the French Made Easy Podcast. This is episode number 67, numéro 67! 

Today's lesson is super quick and easy. We're going to look at how to say "there is" and "there are" in French. I'll also teach you the negative form, so how to say "there isn't" and "there aren't". 

Cool. So, if you're new to the podcast, then before you get started on the lesson, make sure you have your lesson cheat sheet, so you can have a look at the words while hearing them. Then after the lesson, you can head over to the French Made Easy library to download your lesson's exercises, so you can practice. And it's free. 

So there’s only one way to say "there is" and also "there are" in French:

"il y a”

Please repeat after me: il y a.

Don't worry about the word-for-word translation because that doesn't translate very well.

"Il" is the subject pronoun, which means "he" or "it," "y," which is the letter "y" means "there," and "a" is the conjugated verb "avoir." It translates as "it has there," which doesn't really mean anything. So the correct translation of "il y a" is "there is" and "there are".

Now let's see some examples: 

  • In my garden, there is a tree. -> Dans mon jardin, il y a un arbre. 🌳

  • In my garden, there are flowers. -> Dans mon jardin, il y a des fleurs. 🌸

  • There is an apple on the table. -> Il y a une pomme sur la table. 🍎

  • There are strawberries on the table. -> Il y a des fraises sur la table. 🍓

Great, up to here, easy, right? 

Now let's see the negative form.

By the way, if you need to learn the basics on how to create negative sentences, head over to episode number 36. 

To say "there isn't" or "there aren't," you say:

“il n'y a pas”

You need to add an “n” with an apostrophe and the negation word “pas.”

Ok, so let's use the same examples as before. 

  • In my garden, there isn't any tree. -> Dans mon jardin, il n'y a pas d'arbre. 🌳

  • In my garden, there aren't any flowers. -> Dans mon jardin, il n'y a pas de fleurs. 🌸

  • There isn't any apple on the table. -> Il n'y a pas de pomme sur la table. 🍎

  • There aren't strawberries on the table. -> Il n’y a pas de fraises sur la table. 🍓

Something to add before finishing today's lesson is that oftentimes, you'll hear French speakers, in casual speech, say "y'a" instead of the full "il y a" and also "y'a pas" instead of "il n'y a pas." It's super casual; it's a shortcut.

So, it's really up to you how you want to use it. But attention, not to use in writing. In writing, please write the full one; it doesn't take that much longer, "il y a" and "il n'y a pas." 

Alright, so that's it for today's lesson. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, then I'd really appreciate a quick rating and review on Apple Podcast. 

Don't forget to go and download your exercises, the link is in the episode notes! 

À la semaine prochaine, I’ll chat with you next week!

Merci beaucoup, et à bientôt!

 
Mathilde Kien1 Comment