y avoir
French
Etymology
From y (“there”) + avoir (“to have”), literally “to have there”; derived from Middle French y avoir, from Old French i avoir, from Latin hīc (“here”) and habēre (“to have”). Compare Catalan haver-hi and Spanish haber.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /i.j‿a.vwaʁ/
Verb
y avoir
- (impersonal, transitive) there be
- Il y a deux raisons. ― There are two reasons.
Usage notes
- The subject of y avoir must always be il (sometimes indirectly, as in Il semble y avoir un problème, “There seems to be a problem”). Thus, avoir always appears in one of its third-person singular forms. This is unlike be in English for there to be, which often takes plural forms.
- While the sense is idiomatic, the syntax is the ordinary syntax for y and avoir; thus N’y a-t-il pas de fromage ? (“Is there no cheese ?”), Il y en a deux (“There are two [of them]”), and so on.
Conjugation
This verb is impersonal and is conjugated only in the third-person singular.
Conjugation of y avoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| present participle | y ayant /i.j‿ɛ.jɑ̃/ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| past participle | eu /y/ | ||||||
| infinitive | |||||||
| simple | y avoir | ||||||
| compound | y avoir + past participle | ||||||
| gerund1 | |||||||
| simple | y ayant /i.j‿ɛ.jɑ̃/ | ||||||
| compound | y ayant + past participle | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | — | — | y a /i.j‿a/ | — | — | — |
| imperfect | — | — | y avait /i.j‿a.vɛ/ | — | — | — | |
| past historic2 | — | — | y eut /i.j‿y/ | — | — | — | |
| future | — | — | y aura /i.j‿o.ʁa/ | — | — | — | |
| conditional | — | — | y aurait /i.j‿o.ʁɛ/ | — | — | — | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of y avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | — | — | y ait /i.j‿ɛ/ | — | — | — |
| imperfect2 | — | — | y eût /i.j‿y/ | — | — | — | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of y avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of y avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of y avoir + past participle | simple imperative of y avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 Only usable with preposition en. | |||||||
| 2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Related terms
- il y a
Middle French
Etymology
Old French i avoir, from Latin hīc (“here”) and habēre (“to have”).
Verb
y avoir (impersonal)
- there be
- 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 77:
- Il y a ung chevalier en ceste forest le plus grant et le plus merveilleux que vos veissiez oncques.
- There is a knight in this forest, the greatest and most marvellous that you will ever see.
-
Descendants
- French: y avoir