Negating "there is" (il n'y a pas de)

Negating "there is" (il n'y a pas)

You already know that il y a means "there is" or "there are". To make this negative, we use the ne... pas sandwich.

Before the vowel y, ne drops its e to become n'. The negative words wrap around y a, giving us il n'y a pas.

The rule of "de"

In negative sentences, the indefinite articles un, une, and des change to de. You can think of this de as meaning "any" in a negative context.

When you put it all together, il n'y a pas de translates to "there is no" or "there are no". Notice how the French phrasing is exactly the same whether the following noun is singular or plural.

Dropping the "e" (d')

Just like ne becomes n', de drops its e and becomes d' when the following noun starts with a vowel or silent h.