Learn French: Il y a peu de fraises sur la table. - There are few strawberries on the table.

Il y a peu de fraises sur la table.

There are few strawberries on the table.

Breakdown of Il y a peu de fraises sur la table.

Questions & Answers about Il y a peu de fraises sur la table.

The lesson is about un peu de, but this sentence uses peu de. What is the difference?

Un peu de means "a little" or "a few" (a small but positive amount). Peu de without the un means "little" or "few" (a small, almost negative amount, meaning "not many"). Here, peu de fraises means there are very few strawberries, perhaps not enough!

Since fraises (strawberries) is plural, why isn't it peu des fraises?

After expressions of quantity like peu de, un peu de, and beaucoup de, the word de never changes to des, even if the noun that follows is plural. It remains exactly as de (or d' before a vowel).

I learned il y a means "there is". Why does it mean "there are" here?

In French, il y a is a fixed expression that means both "there is" and "there are". Unlike English, it doesn't change when you talk about multiple things. Since we are talking about multiple strawberries here, it naturally translates to "there are".

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

No, the final "s" in fraises is silent, which is the normal rule for plural nouns in French. You usually can't hear the difference between the singular fraise and the plural fraises when speaking!