French Impersonal Verbs
Impersonal verbs in French are ones where the subject has no real referent. There is no "he" or "it" doing anything. The is a grammatical placeholder, the same way English uses "there" or "it" in "there is a cat" or "it's raining".
il y a: there is / there are
The all-purpose existence marker. Same form for singular and plural.
- y a chat . (There's a cat in the garden.)
- y a . (There are three children.)
- y a . (There's a problem.)
- y a . (There are a lot of people.)
The structure parses as y a = "it there has", but the English equivalent is just "there is / are".
Tense forms:
| Tense | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Present | y a | there is / are |
| Imparfait | y | there was / were |
| composé | y a | there has / had been |
| y | there will be | |
| Conditionnel | y | there would be |
Negation: n'y a . n'y a pain (there's no bread). The article-becomes-de rule applies here as everywhere.
Question: Y a-t- ? (Is there a problem?) - formal, with inversion. Or - ' y a ? - neutral. Or y a ? - casual.
il faut: one must / it's necessary
Expresses necessity. Followed by a noun, an infinitive, or + subjunctive (Higher-tier).
With an infinitive:
- . (We have to leave / one must leave.)
- . (One must eat.)
- patient. (You have to be patient.)
- . (You mustn't forget.)
With a noun (a need for something):
- pain. (Bread is needed.)
- . (Time is needed.)
- me . (I need a pen. - me adds the person)
The construction is impersonal - the il refers to nothing. The subject of the infinitive is implied by context.
Tense forms:
| Tense | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Present | one must | |
| Imparfait | one had to / it was necessary | |
| composé | a | one had to |
| one will have to | ||
| Conditionnel | one should / would have to |
il fait + weather
The default construction for weather. + adjective covers most of it.
- . (The weather is nice.)
- . (It's hot.)
- . (It's cold.)
- . (The weather is bad.)
- . (It's daylight.)
- . (It's nighttime.)
For weather as a verb (the active phenomenon), French uses + weather verb:
- . (It's raining.)
- . (It's snowing.)
- gèle. (It's freezing.)
Or y a + noun:
- y a . (It's sunny.)
- y a . (It's windy.)
- y a brouillard. (It's foggy.)
All three patterns coexist. Foundation tier wants you confident with + adj and / at a minimum.
il est + time
Time-telling uses (not il y a, not il fait).
- . (It's three o'clock.)
- . (It's noon.)
- . (It's half past midnight.)
- Quelle -? (What time is it?)
The same is used in some Higher-tier impersonal constructions (il est difficile de..., il est interdit de...), but for Foundation tier it's mostly the time-telling verb.
il manque, il reste (briefly)
Two more impersonal verbs worth recognising:
- . (Three people are missing.)
- . (There are two cakes left.)
The il is grammatical; the real subject (the missing people, the remaining cakes) comes after the verb. These are Higher-tier on the AQA list but show up at Foundation level in passive listening.
Worked examples
- y a . (There are a lot of people at the market this morning.)
- , y concert . (Yesterday there was a concert in the park.)
- on à l'. (We have to leave now if we want to arrive on time.)
- ton . (You mustn't forget your passport.)
- , y a . (The weather is nice, but it's windy.)
- , a . (Yesterday it rained all day.)
- . (It's half past five.)
Common mistakes English speakers make
Using y a for time and for existence: time wants , existence wants y a, weather wants or . They're not interchangeable. Forgetting the article-becomes-de rule under negation: n'y a pain is wrong, it's n'y a pain. And translating "I have to" with j' à - the French construction is ... or just ... (with devoir).
See also
- The partitives and de page covers the de rule that applies under negation in il n'y a pas de...
- The French grammar cheatsheet covers the wider A1-B1 foundation.
- The intermediate French grammar page covers il faut + que + subjunctive and the other impersonal constructions (il est difficile de, il vaut mieux que).