M'y answer feels awkward and is clearly wrong but i cannot find anywhere on the site that deals with when you need to use ici rather than ils n'y habitent plus in this situation... Think it needs là as well.
The help just takes you to ne..plus
Ils habitent ici? - Non, ils ________. Do they live here? - No, they don't live here any more.n'habitent plus icin'y habitent plusMark, “y” doesn’t work because it would mean ‘there’ not here. Except in some idiomatic forms, ‘y’ refers to a “previously mentioned” (known) place.
The somewhat over-the-top (to a non-native, at least) French link below does a decent job of discussing ici, là, là-bas
https://youtu.be/D_mSDQ1hyFE
and Cécile has previously addressed ‘y’, ‘là’ or ‘là-bas’
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/questions/view/y-vs-la-vs-la-bas
Yes, so did I, but just in case others in the future want to take a peek, they will be forewarned that it is very “French” - which helps make it memorable !
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level