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Il y avait un roi riche et un paysan pauvre.

Il y avait un roi riche et un paysan pauvre.
There was a rich king and a poor peasant.
From Lesson 132:Past impersonal verbs (il y avait, il fallait)·French

Questions & Answers about Il y avait un roi riche et un paysan pauvre.

Why is it 'il y avait' here instead of the passé composé 'il y a eu'?
Il y avait is the imparfait (descriptive past) form of il y a (there is/there are). We use the imparfait here because we are setting the scene for a story or describing an ongoing state in the past, rather than focusing on a single, completed event.
Does il y avait change if we are talking about plural things, like 'there were kings'?
No, it stays exactly the same! Just like il y a means both 'there is' and 'there are', il y avait translates to both 'there was' and 'there were'. Even if there were two kings, it would still be Il y avait deux rois.
Why do the adjectives riche and pauvre come after the nouns they describe?
In French, most adjectives go after the noun, like un roi riche (a rich king) and un paysan pauvre (a poor peasant). Only a specific group of common adjectives (describing Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, and Size) regularly go before the noun.
Doesn't the adjective pauvre change meaning depending on where it goes?
Yes, it does! When pauvre comes after the noun (un paysan pauvre), it literally means 'lacking money'. If it comes before the noun (un pauvre paysan), it means 'poor' as in 'unfortunate' or 'pitiable', regardless of how much money they have.

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