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J'aime ce grand campus parce que j'y rencontre mes amis.

J'aime ce grand campus parce que j'y rencontre mes amis.
I like this large campus because I meet my friends there.
From Lesson 107:The pronoun of place (y)·French

Questions & Answers about J'aime ce grand campus parce que j'y rencontre mes amis.

What does y mean in this sentence, and why is it placed before the verb?
In this sentence, y means "there" and stands in for the location mentioned earlier (ce grand campus). In French, adverbial pronouns like y are placed directly before the conjugated verb. That is why we say j'y rencontre (literally "I there meet") rather than putting it at the end of the sentence like we do in English.
Why do we write j'y instead of je y?
The pronoun je always drops its e and uses an apostrophe when the very next word starts with a vowel. Because the pronoun y is treated as a vowel in French, je y must combine to become j'y.
Why does the adjective grand come before campus? Don't most French adjectives go after the noun?
Most French adjectives do go after the noun, but a specific group of short, common adjectives goes before it. A common memory trick for these is the acronym BANGS (Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size). Since grand describes Size, it is placed before campus.
Why is it ce grand campus and not cet grand campus?
The word ce is the masculine singular form of "this". You only use the alternative form cet when the very next word starts with a vowel or a silent H. Since the next word here is grand (which starts with a consonant), we use ce.

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