y avoir

French

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.

(impersonal, transitive) there be
Il y a deux raisons. ― There are two reasons.

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.

This verb is impersonal and is conjugated only in the third-person singular.

Conjugation of y avoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		y avoir			avoir y eu
gerund		en y ayant			en ayant y eu
present participle		y ayant /i.j‿ɛ.jɑ̃/
past participle		y eu /i.j‿y/
person		singular			plural
person		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	—	—	y a /i.j‿a/	—	—	—
	imperfect	—	—	y avait /i.j‿a.vɛ/	—	—	—
	past historic¹	—	—	y eut /i.j‿y/	—	—	—
	future	—	—	y aura /i.j‿o.ʁa/	—	—	—
	conditional	—	—	y aurait /i.j‿o.ʁɛ/	—	—	—
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior¹	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	—	—	y ait /i.j‿ɛ/	—	—	—
simple tenses	imperfect¹	—	—	y eût /i.j‿y/	—	—	—
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
compound tenses	pluperfect¹	Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
imperative		—	—	—	—	—	—
¹literary tenses

Old French i avoir, from Latin hīc (“here”) and habēre (“to have”).

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.

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