Il n'y a pas de fromage dans ce supermarché.

Questions & Answers about Il n'y a pas de fromage dans ce supermarché.

Why do we use ce instead of cet or cette here?
In French, demonstrative adjectives (words for "this" or "that") change based on the gender of the noun. Because supermarché is a masculine word starting with a consonant, we use ce. If it were feminine, we would use cette, and if it were a masculine word starting with a vowel, we would use cet.
Wait, doesn't "cheese" usually take du? Why is it de fromage here?
Great catch! Normally, you would say il y a du fromage (there is some cheese). But when you make a sentence negative with ne ... pas, the words for "some" (du, de la, des) change to simply de. So "not any cheese" becomes pas de fromage.
Does ce mean "this" or "that" in English?
It can mean either! French doesn't strictly separate "this" and "that" the way English does. Depending on the context, ce supermarché can be translated as "this supermarket" or "that supermarket".
What exactly does the n'y mean at the beginning of the sentence?
It is part of the negative form of il y a (there is / there are). The n' is just ne (the first half of the negative "not" sandwich) shortened because it is next to the vowel y. Together, il n'y a pas means "there is not" or "there are not".

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