Questions & Answers about Il y a un hôtel très moderne ici.
Wait, il means 'he', y means 'there', and a means 'has'. How does this mean 'there is'?
You are exactly right about the individual words! Literally, il y a translates to 'it there has'. However, in French, this is a fixed expression that simply means 'there is' or 'there are'. It is best to just memorize it as a single chunk of meaning. Does il y a change if we are talking about more than one hotel?
No, it stays exactly the same! Unlike English, which changes between 'there is' (singular) and 'there are' (plural), French uses il y a for both. If there were two hotels, you would simply say Il y a deux hôtels ici. Why does très moderne come after hôtel? In English we say 'a very modern hotel'.
In French, most adjectives (like moderne) are placed after the noun they describe. Because the adverb très (very) modifies moderne, the whole descriptive phrase très moderne moves together after the noun, giving us un hôtel très moderne. Hôtel is a masculine word, so why does the adjective moderne end in an -e? Isn't that usually for feminine words?
Usually, adding an -e makes a French adjective feminine. However, moderne is one of those adjectives that naturally ends in an -e in its base masculine dictionary form. When an adjective already ends in an unaccented -e, it stays exactly the same for both masculine and feminine nouns. Do you pronounce the 'h' in hôtel?
No, the letter 'h' is always silent in French. Because hôtel starts with a silent 'h' followed by a vowel sound (ô), you must connect the 'n' sound from un to the beginning of hôtel. This connection is called a liaison, making un hôtel sound smooth and continuous. Learn Il y a un hôtel très moderne ici and more in French
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