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
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.
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.
Q&A
Chris
Kwiziq community member
7/12/18
The "y" comes before the infinitive, similar to other pronouns. In the absence of the infinitive, it comes before the conjugated verb.
Je vais les rencontrer.
Je dois lui en parler.
Judy
Kwiziq community member
7/12/18
In a frequently asked question, I found out that when using the ‘futur proche’ the pronoun ‘y’ is placed between the verb and the infinitive. For example ‘Je vais y aller’.
Thanks Chris.
Steve
Kwiziq community member
18/11/18
Helen,
The short answer is that the verb rêver takes the preposition "de" when we want to say we dream about/of something, and "de" is replaced by the pronoun "en".
Elle rêve de son père -> Elle en rêve.
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
14/07/18
Hi Rob,
Are you talking about a specific quiz?
Chris
Kwiziq community member
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
14/08/18
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
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
8/12/16
Kalonde
Kwiziq community member
29/05/17
Márcio
Kwiziq community member
16/02/19
Hi Kalonde! It's more likely that you are hearing "Il en a" rather than "Y en a". They sound similar to our non-french ears when spoken fast, so it get us puzzled sometimes!
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
16/02/19
Bonjour Kalonde!
The sentence you hear is "Il y en a" = there are some.
This would indeed be the only case where both are present in the same sentence, but only because "y" is part of the fixed expression "il y a" (there is/are).
Bonne journée!
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
3/08/16
John
Kwiziq community member
3/08/16
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
3/08/16
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
8/08/16
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
Drew
Kwiziq community member
3 February 2019
1 reply
Y not En
«Nous allons en France tous les ans» . Write "We go there every year": Nous ________ allons tous les ans. The correct answer is "Nous y allons tous les ans." Why does "y" replace "en france" instead of "en."Lesson states: "Y replaces places introduced with prepositions "à, sur, chez, dans."
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
5 February 2019
5/02/19
Hi Drew,
As stated below and taken from the lesson-
"Notice that to refer to a place previously mentioned in French, you use the pronoun y ('there')."
Hope this helps!