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Il y a vingt chaises dans le bureau.

Il y a vingt chaises dans le bureau.
There are 20 chairs in the office.
From Lesson 29:Numbers 21 to 100·French

Questions & Answers about Il y a vingt chaises dans le bureau.

Why does it use Il y a if there are multiple chairs? Shouldn't it be plural?
In French, il y a means both 'there is' and 'there are'. It never changes, even if you are talking about plural things like vingt chaises!
How do you pronounce the number vingt in this sentence?
The gt at the end is completely silent. It sounds a bit like the English word 'van' but spoken with a nasal tone. You will only hear the t when it links to a following word that starts with a vowel (like vingt ans), or when building larger numbers like vingt-deux (twenty-two).
Does the number vingt ever get an s to match the plural chairs?
Usually, no. Numbers generally do not change their spelling to match plural nouns. You will learn one special exception in this lesson: vingt only gets an s when it is multiplied to make 80 (quatre-vingts) and is not followed by another number. For just twenty chairs, it stays exactly as vingt.
Can bureau mean something other than 'office'?
Yes! The word bureau can mean 'office' (the room or workplace) but it also means 'desk'. You have to use context to tell them apart. Since it is very hard to fit twenty chairs inside a desk, 'office' makes the most sense here.

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