Look at these two examples:
Notice that to refer to a place previously mentioned in French, you use the pronoun y ('there').
Note also that "y" is placed before the conjugated verb.
Look at how "y" can replace locations introduced by the following prepositions: à, sur, chez, dans :
Tu vas à l'école ? - Oui, j'y vais.
Are you going to school? - Yes, I'm going there.
Paul est arrivé à Paris hier ? - Oui, Paul y est arrivé hier.
Did Paul arrive in Paris yesterday? - Yes, Paul arrived there yesterday.
Elle a posé les clés sur la table ? - Oui, elle y a posé les clés.
Did she put the keys on the table? - Yes, she put the keys there.
Tu passeras par chez elle ? - Oui, j'y passerai plus tard.
Will you swing by her place ? - Yes, I'll swing by [there] later.
Qu'est-ce que tu mets dans cette boîte ? - J'y mets mes bijoux.
What do you put in that box? - I put my jewellery in there.
Depuis quand habite-t-il chez Laurent ? - Il y habite depuis janvier.
Since when has he lived at Laurent's place? - He's lived there since January.
BUT
You cannot replace the expression "de + a place" by "y". You will always use "en" instead:
Il vient de la piscine ? - Oui, il en vient.
Is he coming from the swimming pool? - Yes, he is coming from there.
See En can replace de + phrase (adverbial pronoun)
and more advanced cases with Y can replace à + thing / object / location (adverbial pronoun)
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Tu vas à l'école ? - Oui, j'y vais.
Are you going to school? - Yes, I'm going there.
Elle a posé les clés sur la table ? - Oui, elle y a posé les clés.
Did she put the keys on the table? - Yes, she put the keys there.
Nous y retournons demain.
We go back there tomorrow.
Il vient de la piscine ? - Oui, il en vient.
Is he coming from the swimming pool? - Yes, he is coming from there.
Il y travaille.
He works there.
Depuis quand habite-t-il chez Laurent ? - Il y habite depuis janvier.
Since when has he lived at Laurent's place? - He's lived there since January.
Nous y passons tous les soirs.
We pass there every night.
Qu'est-ce que tu mets dans cette boîte ? - J'y mets mes bijoux.
What do you put in that box? - I put my jewellery in there.
Paul est arrivé à Paris hier ? - Oui, Paul y est arrivé hier.
Did Paul arrive in Paris yesterday? - Yes, Paul arrived there yesterday.
Tu passeras par chez elle ? - Oui, j'y passerai plus tard.
Will you swing by her place ? - Yes, I'll swing by [there] later.
Q&A
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
8/12/16
You will never use both "y" and "en" together in the same sentence.
In such a case, you will use either "en" or "y" to replace one of the groups, and keep the original other group.
"Je veux des bonbons à la plage." (I want sweets at the beach.)
-> "J'y veux des bonbons." (Not my favourite option, it doesn't sound great to my French ears!)
-> "J'en veux à la plage."
I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !
Kalonde
Kwiziq community member
29/05/17
- I often hear the phrase "Y en a." in response to a question like "Il y a des pommes dans ce magasin?", for example.
Is it then wrong to use "y" and "en" together in the above sentence?
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
3/08/16
Yes, y can replace any preposition* that indicates a place: à, sur, dans, chez.
*Except de, which is replaced by en.
John
Kwiziq community member
3/08/16
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
3/08/16
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
8/08/16
The lesson has now been updated with new examples of cases with "sur, chez, dans".
Merci et à bientôt !
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
28/06/16
Bonjour Dipika !
Technically, this sentence "J'y peux venir ce soir" is correct to say "I can come there tonight".
However, no one French would actually use this formulation.
We'd rather say:
Je peux venir ce soir. or
Je peux venir ici (here)/là (there)/là-bas (over there) ce soir.
I hope that's helpful!
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
21/04/16
Bonjour Diane,
Y precedes the verb it modifies, which is réfléchir. Putting y in front of vais would be like saying "I'm going about it to think."
diane
Kwiziq community member
21/04/16
Rob
Kwiziq community member
14 July 2018
3 replies
Why is elle met les tasses là not accepted for she put the cups there?
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
14 July 2018
14/07/18
Hi Rob,
Are you talking about a specific quiz?
Chris
Kwiziq community member
16 July 2018
16/07/18
It's simply because the lesson is about the pronoun "y". You're supposed to practice its use.
-- Chris.
Jamie
Kwiziq community member
14 August 2018
14/08/18
In general, you are doing something very tempting when learning a foreign language, but something you can never do: you can never take an English sentence, translate each word with a dictionary, and end up with a correct foreign-language sentence. That's just not how grammar works. Foreign languages not only have different lists of words--they have different ways of putting words together into sentences.
There is a famous book where someone tried to go the other way: he took French sentences and looked up the matching English words in a dictionary. The results were pretty comical:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke