Learn French: Il y a des escaliers dehors.

Il y a des escaliers dehors.

There are stairs outside.

Breakdown of Il y a des escaliers dehors.

des

some (plural indefinite)

the staircase, stairs (m)

Questions & Answers about Il y a des escaliers dehors.

Why does the sentence use Il y a if the word for stairs is plural?

In French, the expression il y a means both "there is" and "there are". It is a fixed expression that never changes its form, so it is perfectly correct to use it right before a plural noun like des escaliers.

Why do we need des here? Can't we just say Il y a escaliers?

In English, you can simply say "there are stairs", but French strictly requires a little word (an article) in front of almost every noun. Because we are talking about an unspecified number of stairs, we use the plural indefinite article des (which roughly translates to "some").

Does escaliers mean "stairs" or "staircases"?

It can mean both! In English, we usually say "stairs" in the plural. French, however, often uses the singular un escalier to talk about one entire staircase. The plural des escaliers used in this sentence can refer to multiple flights of stairs or just generally "stairs" in a broader sense.

Is the "s" at the end of dehors pronounced?

No, the final "s" in dehors (which means "outside") is completely silent. This is very common in French, where most final consonants are not pronounced unless they link to a vowel sound in the next word.