Literally, “to have there”; from Middle French y avoir, from Old French i avoir, from Latin hīc (“here”) and habēre (“to have”). Compare Catalan haver-hi and Spanish hay.
This verb is impersonal and is conjugated only in the third-person singular.
infinitive | simple | y avoir | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | y avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | y ayant /i.j‿ɛ.jɑ̃/ or /i.j‿e.jɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | y ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | eu /y/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | — | — | y a /i.j‿a/ |
— | — | — |
imperfect | — | — | y avait /i.j‿a.vɛ/ |
— | — | — | |
past historic2 | — | — | y eut /i.j‿y/ |
— | — | — | |
future | — | — | y aura /i ɔ.ʁa/ or /i.j‿o.ʁa/ |
— | — | — | |
conditional | — | — | y aurait /i ɔ.ʁɛ/ or /i.j‿o.ʁɛ/ |
— | — | — | |
(compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of y avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect | imperfect indicative of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
past anterior2 | past historic of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
future perfect | future of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
conditional perfect | conditional of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | — | — | y ait /i.j‿ɛ/ |
— | — | — |
imperfect2 | — | — | y eût /i.j‿y/ |
— | — | — | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of y avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of y avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
compound | — | simple imperative of y avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of y avoir + past participle | simple imperative of y avoir + past participle | — | |
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |
Old French i avoir, from Latin hīc (“here”) and habēre (“to have”).