Using y or là for there

Neil H.C1Kwiziq community member

Using y or là for there

Can you say Tu n’y étais pas instead of Tu n’ étais pas là  to mean You wern’t there?

Asked 4 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Neil, 

You would normally use  'y' when it replaces a specific place previously mentioned.

Tu vas à la plage ? Oui, j'y vais dans une heure = Are you going to the beach, yes I am going there in an hour's time

If someone just said out of the blue -

Tu y vas? 

My answer would be 

Où? 

as unclear to where we are talking about. 

Here is the Kwiziq lesson on how to use 'Y' -

Y = There (adverbial pronoun)

In the Kwiz question, we don't know what 'there' stands for, so we use là.

Bonne Continuation!

Neil H. asked:

Using y or là for there

Can you say Tu n’y étais pas instead of Tu n’ étais pas là  to mean You wern’t there?

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