Two meanings of il y a
You probably already know that il y a means "there is" or "there are" when describing what exists around you.
| There are ancient bones in this tomb. | Il y a des os anciens dans cette tombe. |
But when you are talking about completed events in the past, il y a takes on a second, very useful meaning!
Expressing "ago"
When followed by a measurement of time, il y a translates to "ago". To say how long ago something happened, simply state what happened in the past tense (like the passé composé), and add il y a plus your time expression at the end of the sentence.
| ago | il y a |
| We discovered some ruins a year ago. | On a découvert des ruines il y a un an. |
| An archaeologist found a bone ten years ago. | Un archéologue a trouvé un os il y a dix ans. |
Historical timelines
When talking about history or archaeological discoveries, you'll often need to look much further back than just a few years. You can pair il y a with large spans of time like un siècle (a century) or un millénaire (a millennium).
| The archaeologists found this castle a century ago. | Les archéologues ont trouvé ce château il y a un siècle. |
| This ancient civilization disappeared a millennium ago. | Cette ancienne civilisation a disparu il y a un millénaire. |
If you don't know the exact date a civilization disappeared or a tomb was built, you can also just use longtemps (a long time).
| The beautiful statue disappeared a long time ago. | La belle statue a disparu il y a longtemps. |
