Learn French: Le dimanche, il n'y a pas de bus. - On Sundays, there are no buses.

Le dimanche, il n'y a pas de bus.

On Sundays, there are no buses.

Breakdown of Le dimanche, il n'y a pas de bus.

il y a

there is / there are

not (used before the verb)

pas

not (used after the verb)

of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)

Questions & Answers about Le dimanche, il n'y a pas de bus.

Why does the sentence use Le dimanche instead of Les dimanches for "On Sundays"?

In French, you use the singular article le before a day of the week to show that something is a repeating habit. Le dimanche translates to "on Sundays" or "every Sunday". If you just said Dimanche without the le, it would mean "this Sunday".

How does the negative work in il n'y a pas?

The phrase il y a means "there is" or "there are". To make it negative, you put n' and pas around the y a part. This creates il n'y a pas, meaning "there is not" or "there are no".

Why do we say pas de bus instead of pas des bus?

This is a very important French rule! When a sentence is negative and you are expressing "zero" of something, the plural word des changes to just de. So "there are buses" is il y a des bus, but "there are no buses" must be il n'y a pas de bus.

Is the word bus singular or plural in this sentence?

After pas de, nouns are normally written in the singular form because there is zero of them. The word bus happens to end in an "s" naturally, so its singular and plural forms are spelled exactly the same!