There is and where is in French

Level A1

There is and where is in French

French says both "there is" and "there are" with one phrase, il y a, which never changes: "Il y a une boulangerie dans cette rue", "Il y a trois chaises dans la cuisine". To ask where something is, you use où with est for one thing and sont for more than one. You'll also learn ici, là and là-bas, and the little word en that French needs to say "there's one". Lines marked informal use tu, for friends and family ("Viens ici, s'il te plaît"); with a stranger, use vous, as in "Excusez-moi".

Here, there and where: ici, là and où — and là often means "here" too

There is, there are: il y a, for one thing or many

Il y a une boulangerie dans cette rue.

Is there…? and There's no…: (Est-ce qu')il y a…? and Il n'y a pas de…

(Est-ce qu')il y a un canapé ? · Il n'y a pas de canapé.

Asking where: Où est…? for one thing, Où sont…? for more — and les toilettes is plural

Où est la gare ? · Où sont les toilettes ?

Saying where it is: La salle de bain est là-bas, Ton téléphone est ici

La salle de bain est là-bas.

"There's a bakery" or "the bakery is": il y a or être

As in English, French uses one form to say that something exists and another to say where a thing you both know about is. "Il y a une boulangerie dans cette rue" brings in a bakery; "La boulangerie est dans cette rue" tells you where the bakery is. Il y a usually goes with un, une, des or a number, and it stays the same before one thing or many: there's no plural form like "there are".

In the negative, un, une and des after il y a turn into de, or d' before a vowel: "Il n'y a pas de lait dans le frigo". English says "there's no milk", but French says "there isn't any milk", with ne … pas around y a.

"There's one": il y en a une

When someone asks "Is there a pharmacy?", English answers "there's one", but in French "il y a une" on its own sounds cut off. French adds en, a small word that stands for the thing already mentioned, between y and a: "Oui, il y en a une dans cette rue". With a number it works the same way: "Il y en a deux", "there are two (of them)".

In the negative, en stays and the number goes: "Il n'y en a pas" means "there aren't any".

Asking a stranger the way, politely with vous: excusez-moi, il y en a une and là-bas

Looking for your keys at home, casually with tu: où sont, ne … pas là and les voilà

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