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C'est une jolie région, mais il n'y a pas de lacs.

C'est une jolie région, mais il n'y a pas de lacs.
It is a pretty region, but there are no lakes.
From Lesson 16:Negating "there is" (il n'y a pas de)·French

Questions & Answers about C'est une jolie région, mais il n'y a pas de lacs.

Why is it pas de lacs instead of pas des lacs if lakes is plural?
In French, when you make a sentence negative, the plural article des changes to de. So, even though lacs is plural, the negative expression il n'y a pas de always uses de.
What are the pieces that make up il n'y a pas de?
It comes from the phrase il y a (there is / there are). To make it negative, we place ne and pas around the verb a. Because the pronoun y starts with a vowel sound, ne drops its e and becomes n', giving us il n'y a pas. Finally, we add de because it is a negative quantity.
Why is jolie before région? Don't French adjectives usually go after the noun?
Most French adjectives do go after the noun, but short, common adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Goodness, or Size usually come before the noun. Since jolie describes beauty, it goes right before région.
The word région is feminine, so why do we say C'est instead of Elle est?
When you introduce or describe a noun that has an article in front of it (like une région), you use c'est. You would only use elle est if it were followed directly by an adjective without a noun, like elle est jolie (it is pretty).

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