Impersonal Verbs: il y a, il faut, il fait

Some French verbs are used only in the il form. Here il does not mean "he" — it is an empty grammatical subject, exactly like the "it" in the English "it is raining" or "there is a problem". No real person or thing is doing the action.

These impersonal expressions are extremely high-frequency and appear in every paper. The three you must master are:

Expression	Meaning	Example	English
il y a	there is / there are	Il y a un problème.	There is a problem.
il faut	you must / need to	Il faut partir.	You must leave.
il fait	(weather) it is	Il fait beau.	The weather is nice.

Because they have only one form, there is no full conjugation grid to learn — but you do need to change their tense, which the next slides cover.

il y a means both "there is" and "there are". Unlike English, it does not change for singular or plural — the same il y a covers one thing or many.

French	English
Il y a un livre sur la table.	There is a book on the table.
Il y a des livres partout.	There are books everywhere.
Il y a beaucoup de monde.	There are lots of people.
Il n'y a pas de lait.	There is no milk.

In the negative, it becomes il n'y a pas (de) — and de replaces the article after the negative: il n'y a pas de pain (there is no bread).

il y a also means "ago" with a time expression: il y a deux ans = "two years ago", il y a une semaine = "a week ago".

Worked examples:

• Dans ma ville, il y a un cinéma et deux parcs. — In my town there is a cinema and two parks.
• Il y a trop de circulation. — There is too much traffic.

il y a keeps the same idea in the past and future — only the verb inside it changes tense.

Tense	Form	Meaning	Example
Present	il y a	there is / are	Il y a du soleil.
Imperfect	il y avait	there was / were	Il y avait beaucoup de gens.
Future	il y aura	there will be	Il y aura une fête demain.

Worked examples:

• Il y avait un château ici au Moyen Âge. — There was a castle here in the Middle Ages.
• Il y aura un concert samedi soir. — There will be a concert on Saturday evening.
• Avant, il n'y avait pas d'internet. — Before, there was no internet.

Use il y avait to describe a past scene (imperfect) and il y aura for future plans. Both are invariable — they never change for singular or plural.

il faut expresses necessity or obligation — "it is necessary to", "you must", "one has to". It is followed most often by an infinitive.

French	English
Il faut manger sainement.	You must eat healthily.
Il faut faire attention.	You have to be careful.
Il faut réviser pour l'examen.	You must revise for the exam.
Il ne faut pas fumer.	You must not smoke.

il faut can also be followed by a noun, meaning "you need":

• Il faut du temps. — You need time. / It takes time.
• Il faut de la patience. — You need patience.

Worked examples:

• Pour être en forme, il faut faire du sport. — To be fit, you must do sport.
• Il faut prendre la première rue à droite. — You have to take the first street on the right.

(Higher tier) Related impersonals include il vaut mieux + infinitive ("it is better to"), il manque ("there is missing"), and il est difficile / facile de + infinitive ("it is hard / easy to").

Most weather expressions use il fait + an adjective. A few common ones use their own verb.

French	English
Il fait beau.	The weather is nice.
Il fait mauvais.	The weather is bad.
Il fait chaud.	It is hot.
Il fait froid.	It is cold.
Il fait du vent.	It is windy.
Il fait du soleil.	It is sunny.
Il pleut.	It is raining. (pleuvoir)
Il neige.	It is snowing. (neiger)

Two more high-frequency impersonals:

• il est + a number tells the time: Il est trois heures (It is three o'clock), Il est midi (It is midday).
• il y a du vent / du brouillard uses il y a for some weather too: Il y a du brouillard (It is foggy).

Worked examples:

• En hiver, il fait froid et il neige souvent. — In winter it is cold and it often snows.
• Il est huit heures et demie. — It is half past eight.

1. Making il y a agree with a plural

il y a never changes: il y a un chien and il y a trois chiens. Do not write il y ont or add an -s to the verb. The same single form covers singular and plural.

2. Translating il as "he"

In these expressions il means "it", not "he". Il pleut is "it is raining", not "he is raining"; il faut partir is "you must leave", not "he must leave".

3. Conjugating the verb after il faut

il faut is followed by an infinitive: Il faut aller, not Il faut je vais. The impersonal expression already carries the meaning "one must".

4. Using être instead of faire for weather

Most weather is il fait + adjective: Il fait chaud, not Il est chaud (which would mean "he/it is hot" about a thing). Remember the exceptions il pleut and il neige, which are not il fait.

5. Forgetting de after il n'y a pas

After the negative, the article becomes de: Il n'y a pas de places (There are no seats), not il n'y a pas des places. This is the standard "de after a negative" rule.