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Une civilisation a disparu il y a un siècle.

Une civilisation a disparu il y a un siècle.
A civilization disappeared a century ago.
From Lesson 97:Past time marker (il y a...)·French

Questions & Answers about Une civilisation a disparu il y a un siècle.

I thought il y a meant 'there is'. Why is it translated as 'ago' here?
You are right that il y a normally means 'there is' or 'there are'. However, when you put il y a directly in front of an amount of time, like un siècle (a century), the meaning changes to 'ago'.
Why is the verb a disparu in two parts?
The sentence uses the passé composé, which is the most common French past tense. It is built using a helper verb (a, from avoir) and a past participle. The past participle here is disparu, which is the irregular past form of disparaître (to disappear).
Could I start the sentence with il y a un siècle instead?
Yes! Just like in English, you can place the time expression at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize it. You would simply say: Il y a un siècle, une civilisation a disparu.
Could I use depuis instead of il y a in this sentence?
No, because they serve different purposes. Il y a followed by time means 'ago' and is used for an action that is completely finished in the past. Depuis followed by time means 'for' or 'since' and is used for an action that started in the past but is still happening now.

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