Learn French: Il y a des maisons dans la rue. - There are houses in the street.

Il y a des maisons dans la rue.

There are houses in the street.

Breakdown of Il y a des maisons dans la rue.

des

some (plural indefinite)

Questions & Answers about Il y a des maisons dans la rue.

Since "houses" is plural, why doesn't Il y a change to match it?

In French, the expression il y a is used for both "there is" and "there are". Unlike in English, it never changes its form, so you use the exact same phrase whether you are talking about one thing or multiple maisons.

What do the individual words in Il y a literally mean?

Literally, it translates to "It there has" (il = it, y = there, a = has). However, you shouldn't try to translate it word-for-word. Just treat il y a as a single, fixed phrase meaning "there is" or "there are".

Why is the word des in this sentence? Can't I just say "Il y a maisons"?

You cannot skip des. In English, we can simply say "There are houses", but French requires an article (a little word like a, the, or some) before almost every noun. Des is the plural of un or une, and it is required here even if we don't translate it as "some" in English.

Why does the sentence use dans (in) instead of sur (on) for the street?

Prepositions (words for location or direction) often don't translate perfectly between languages. While English speakers usually say a house is "on the street", French speakers say it is "in the street" (dans la rue).