Il Y A Confusion

[Cecil Hardbody]

Hi, I'm fairly new to the French language and have a quick enquiry about the term 'Il Y A'. This may be a very basic query, but I'm reading contradicting rules about its usage.

I'm led to believe Il Y A, placed anywhere in a sentence, translates as 'ago' (completed event), whereas placed at the beginning, followed by a 'que' means 'there are ... that' (ie ongoing event).

With this in mind, what would be a direct translation of this sentence: 'Il y a cinq ans que Tammy etudie le Francais.'

Did Tammy study French five years ago, or has Tammy been studying French for five years? I'm drawn towards the former since 'etudie' is past-tense, isn't it? But then the fact that 'Il y a [cinq ans] que' is an ongoing event contradicts this, according to my reasoning. 

I may be making this more complicated than it needs to be. Help appreciated. 

Thanks guys. 

[stu harris]

I see your dilemma. You're obviously a very analytical person and somebody who's good to have around when things need to be  just so.

The sentence means Tammy has been studying French for five years. If it was 'Tammy studied French five years ago,' the French would be Tammy étudia le Français il y a cinq ans. (and it would not be incorrect to place the 'il y a' at the beginning of the sentence either.)

Your reasoning was correct but étudie is not past tense.

[George Hunt]

 étudie is present -not past.So 'Il y a cinq ans que Tammy étudie le Francais.' = Tammy has been studying French for five years.

 

if it was "Il y a cinq ans que Tammy étudiait  (that is  a past tense)  le Francais" then that would translate as  "Tammy studied French five years ago"

[stu harris]

Yes, étudiait is probably better than étudia. a étudié is also possible. Those French have lots of past tense constructions, as has been noted many times here.

[Cecil Hardbody]

Okay that's a big help. I'm not sure how I became convinced étudie was PT, but since it's not now it all suddenly makes sense. Thank you very much for your responses!

[Michaël Meyer]

Hi,

You can reformulate 'Il y a cinq ans que Tammy etudie le Francais.' in "Tammy étudie le français depuis cinq ans"

It is easier to understand this way.

Another example : "Il y a quatre pièce de monnaie sur la table" means "Quatre pièces de monnaie sont présentes sur la table".

Or:  "Il y a longtemps que j'aurais aimé apprendre le français" is the same as : "J'aurais aimé apprendre le français depuis longtemps".

The construction, most of the time, is : "Il y a... que"

However, you can say (for example) : "J'ai étudié le français il y a longtemps" ; or "J'ai été, il y a longtemps, au cinéma"; etc.

[Cecil Hardbody]

Hi Michaël, 

I initially started with depuis and had no problems. My confusion came when I was asked to reformulate depuis into Il y a, which led me to become confused as if whether the tense had changed, because I understood Il ya a to mean a past, completed event.

I'm finding it much easier now I've been moved on the right track. 

Thank you for your in-depth response. It's a big help.