"y" and "a-t'il"

I've search through some of the early Rocket French Lessons (1-7) and have not found much explanation for the word _y_ and the form _y a t-'il_. :? I think _y_ is a pronoun used for things, _n'est ce pas_? Is this fully explained somewhere? And _Il y a_ means "there is" or "there are." Does this have a literal meaning that makes sense? Then, in the expression, _Y a-t'il_, which apparently means "Is there?" (or maybe also "Are there?" (Lesson 7, p. 5), where did the "t" in _t-il_ come from? :shock: What is the logic behind it and when and where is it used in general terms.

1. y is an adverb meaning there for example: tu y vas - you go there 2. y is also a pronoun meaning in addition, to it, on it j`y renonce - I give up on it. Il y a literally would be he there has

Thanks. But what is the explanation for the "t" in "Y a-t-il"? [I suspect I misspelled "Y a-t-il" originally, replacing the hyphen with an apostrophe.]

Richard, il y a also means "ago" as used in the sentence "a week ago" - en française: il y a une semaine. I am looking into the "t" in y a t'il and will post again on it when I confirm. Je apprendre française aussi! Karen

Richard, I think I found out that the "t" in y a t'il is... When you flip the position of a pronoun and verb, a hyphen is inserted between them. As in: Donnes-tu? Aimes-tu? Es-tu? When speaking in the third person singular (unless the verb ends in a "t") you insert a "t" As in: Donne-t-il? Aime-t-il? Est-il? So the "t" will represent the direct object pronoun te (t') If I find out more, I will post again. Hope this helps. Karen

Richard: This is a bit advanced grammar but here goes. I found this explaination on p. 92 of 5th Edition Découverte et création, a french textbook. Using the verb avoir with est-ce-que the verb will be inverted with the pronoun. Examples: A-t-il une auto? A-t-elle un chat saimois? A-t-on des questions? And as in this conversation: J'ai un chein, c'est un setter anglais. (I have a dog, it's an English Setter) Est-ce que vous avez un chien ou un chat? (do you have a dog or a cat?) J'ai un chat siamois. Il a les yeux bleus (I have a saimese cat, it has blue eyes.) Molly a-t-elle des animaux? (Molly do you have any animals?) Non, elle n'a pas d'animaux parce qu-elle a des allergies. (No, I do not have any animals, I have allergies.) Hope this helps, I finally got it straight and won't forget this again! Karen