Breakdown of Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
Questions & Answers about Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
Literally, Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue is something like:
- There is a long time that Marie wants to learn a new language.
But this is not natural English. The idiomatic meaning is:
- Marie has wanted to learn a new language for a long time.
So Il y a longtemps que + present tense is often best translated as has/have been … for a long time or has/have wanted for a long time, depending on the verb.
Il y a does usually mean there is / there are (for existence):
- Il y a un livre sur la table. → There is a book on the table.
But il y a also has a time-related use:
Il y a + time expression = ago
- Il y a deux jours → two days ago
Il y a + duration + que + present = have/has been … for …
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre.
→ Marie has wanted to learn for a long time.
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre.
In your sentence, we are in the second situation.
So il y a becomes part of a fixed structure expressing duration, not simple existence.
They mean almost the same thing:
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
- Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue depuis longtemps.
Both mean:
Marie has wanted to learn a new language for a long time.
Differences:
Focus / style:
- Il y a longtemps que… puts the emphasis first on the duration: It’s been a long time that…
- …depuis longtemps puts the subject and action first: Marie has wanted… for a long time.
Register:
Both are neutral and common; depuis longtemps is maybe a bit more straightforward for learners.
In most contexts, they are interchangeable.
In French, when something started in the past and is still true now, you normally use the present tense with expressions like depuis, il y a … que, ça fait … que:
- Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue depuis longtemps.
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
Both describe a desire that started in the past and continues into the present → so the present tense veut is correct.
If you said:
- Il y a longtemps que Marie voulait apprendre une nouvelle langue.
this would usually mean Back then, for a long time, Marie wanted to learn a new language (imperfect, describing a past situation), and it doesn’t necessarily still apply now.
In French, some verbs are followed directly by an infinitive without a preposition, and vouloir is one of them:
- vouloir + infinitive
- Je veux manger. → I want to eat.
- Elle veut apprendre. → She wants to learn.
You never say vouloir de + infinitive or vouloir à + infinitive.
Compare with other verbs:
- essayer de + infinitive → Elle essaie d’apprendre. (She is trying to learn.)
- commencer à + infinitive → Elle commence à apprendre. (She is starting to learn.)
So the correct pattern here is simply: Marie veut apprendre…
Because langue (meaning language or tongue) is feminine in French:
- la langue, une langue, cette langue
Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify:
- Masculine singular: nouveau
- Feminine singular: nouvelle
- Masculine plural: nouveaux
- Feminine plural: nouvelles
Since langue is feminine singular, you need the feminine singular form:
- une nouvelle langue ✅
- un nouveau langue ❌ (wrong: article and adjective would be masculine, noun is feminine)
Yes, there is a small nuance:
une nouvelle langue
- Most common choice here.
- Neutral meaning: a new language (for her), a language she has not learned yet.
une langue nouvelle
- Less common in everyday speech.
- More literary or emphatic.
- Can suggest a language that is new in itself, something innovative or unusual, or just add stylistic emphasis.
In your sentence, for an ordinary context, une nouvelle langue is the natural, idiomatic form.
Yes:
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
- Ça fait longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
Both mean:
Marie has wanted to learn a new language for a long time.
Notes:
- Ça fait… que is very common in spoken French and also fine in writing.
- Il y a… que is perhaps slightly more neutral or formal, but both are widely used.
You can use either; they are basically interchangeable here.
Il y a eu longtemps que… is not natural in this structure; you should avoid it.
Il y avait longtemps que… does exist, but it changes the time frame. Compare:
Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
→ She has wanted to learn a new language for a long time (up to now).Il y avait longtemps que Marie voulait apprendre une nouvelle langue.
→ By that time (in the past), Marie had wanted to learn a new language for a long time.
The second sentence is used when you are already telling a story in the past and you want to say that, at that past moment, this had already been true for a long time.
For your original context (still true now), Il y a longtemps que + présent is the right form.
No. In this structure, que is required:
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue. ✅
- Il y a longtemps Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue. ❌
When il y a + duration + que introduces a clause, the que is part of the pattern and cannot be omitted.
In everyday speech, it tends to flow together quite a bit:
- Il y a is often pronounced almost like [ya].
- longtemps: the p and s are silent → [lɔ̃tɑ̃].
- que is usually [kə] (like a very short, schwa sound).
So a natural pronunciation might sound like:
- [ya lɔ̃tɑ̃ kə maʁi vø ta.pʁɑ̃dʁ yn nuvɛl lɑ̃g]
You will very often hear people say something close to “Y a longtemps que…” in casual speech, dropping the Il in pronunciation, even if it’s still written Il y a.
There are two different usages:
Il y a longtemps (by itself, without que)
- Means a long time ago.
- Example:
- Il y a longtemps, j’habitais ici.
→ A long time ago, I lived here.
- Il y a longtemps, j’habitais ici.
Il y a longtemps que + present (or imperfect)
- Means has/have been … for a long time or had been … for a long time.
- Example:
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
→ Marie has wanted to learn a new language for a long time.
- Il y a longtemps que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
So:
- Without que → ago
- With que → for a long time (up to now / up to that point)
Yes. Longtemps is just a vague duration, but you can replace it with a specific time period:
- Il y a trois ans que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
→ Marie has wanted to learn a new language for three years.
Equivalent:
- Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue depuis trois ans.
- Ça fait trois ans que Marie veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
They all express an action/desire that started three years ago and still continues now, using the present tense in French.