Breakdown of Derrière la maison de ma tante, il y a un grand champ vert.
Questions & Answers about Derrière la maison de ma tante, il y a un grand champ vert.
Il y a literally comes from il (it), y (there), and a (has, from avoir), but together it works as a fixed expression meaning there is / there are.
Key points:
- Il y a is used to introduce the existence or presence of something:
- Il y a un grand champ vert. → There is a big green field.
- Il y a des arbres. → There are trees.
- It does not change for plural: always il y a, never ils y ont.
- In speech it is often pronounced very quickly, almost like [ya].
- You generally use il y a instead of être when you want to say that something exists or is present somewhere, not just describe it.
In your sentence, il y a introduces the existence of a big green field behind the house.
Yes, that sentence is perfectly correct and very natural.
- Derrière la maison de ma tante, il y a un grand champ vert.
- Il y a un grand champ vert derrière la maison de ma tante.
Both are grammatical and mean the same thing.
Difference in feel:
- Starting with Derrière la maison de ma tante emphasizes the location first (behind my aunt’s house…).
- Starting with Il y a un grand champ vert emphasizes the existence of the field first (there is a big green field…).
Both word orders are common; French is flexible here.
In standard French, possession with nouns is usually expressed with de, not à:
- la maison de ma tante → my aunt’s house
- le livre de Paul → Paul’s book
- la voiture de mon père → my father’s car
Using à for this kind of possession (like la maison à ma tante) is considered non‑standard or very regional/familiar. You may hear it in some dialects or informal speech, but you should learn and use:
- la maison de ma tante (correct, standard French)
So: for “X’s Y”, think le / la / les Y de X.
Because tante is a feminine noun, and possessive adjectives in French agree with the gender and number of the thing possessed, not the owner.
- ma tante → my aunt
- mon oncle → my uncle
Forms of my:
- mon → masculine singular noun (or feminine before vowel sound)
- ma → feminine singular noun starting with a consonant
- mes → any plural noun (masculine or feminine)
Since tante is feminine and starts with a consonant t, the correct form is ma tante, not mon tante.
In French, every noun has a grammatical gender:
- la maison → feminine
- un champ → masculine
Unfortunately, gender often has to be memorized with the noun. There are patterns and tendencies, but many exceptions.
In this sentence:
- maison uses la (feminine article) → feminine noun
- champ uses un (masculine article) → masculine noun
When you learn new vocabulary, it is very helpful to learn it with its article:
- une maison (a house)
- un champ (a field)
That way you automatically remember the gender.
French has fairly strict rules about adjective position:
Many adjectives normally go after the noun:
- un champ vert → a green field
- une maison moderne → a modern house
Some common adjectives go before the noun, especially those about:
- Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size (often remembered as BANGS or similar)
- Examples: beau, joli, jeune, vieux, bon, mauvais, grand, petit, long, nouveau, etc.
Grand (big) is one of those adjectives that usually goes before the noun:
- un grand champ → a big field
Vert (green) is a regular color adjective and goes after the noun:
- un champ vert → a green field
When you combine them, you get:
- un grand champ vert
- grand (size) → before the noun
- vert (color) → after the noun
Un champ grand vert sounds wrong to a native speaker.
Adjectives in French must agree with the gender and number of the noun they describe.
The noun here is:
- un champ → masculine, singular
So the adjectives also stay masculine singular:
- grand (not grande)
- vert (not verte)
If the noun changed, the adjectives would change too.
Examples:
- Une maison verte. → feminine singular
- De grands champs verts. → masculine plural
- De grandes maisons vertes. → feminine plural
In the original sentence, vert correctly matches champ (masculine singular), so it stays vert.
Yes, both of these are correct; they just give less information:
- un champ → a field
- un grand champ → a big field (size is emphasized, color unspecified)
- un champ vert → a green field (color is emphasized, size unspecified)
- un grand champ vert → a big green field (both size and color)
Which one you choose depends on what you want to highlight. The full sentence simply adds both qualities.
Yes, derrière is mainly used as a preposition meaning behind:
- derrière la maison → behind the house
- derrière l’école → behind the school
It can also be used as an adverb on its own:
- Regarde derrière. → Look behind you / look behind.
In your sentence, it is a preposition introducing a location:
- Derrière la maison de ma tante → Behind my aunt’s house
You could say derrière chez ma tante, but it is not exactly the same and not as precise.
- la maison de ma tante → specifically the house that belongs to your aunt
- chez ma tante → your aunt’s place / home in a broader sense (household, home, where she lives)
So:
- Derrière la maison de ma tante = strictly behind the building (the house).
- Derrière chez ma tante = behind the place where my aunt lives; it sounds more vague and more colloquial.
For a clear, neutral description of physical location, derrière la maison de ma tante is the best choice.
Everything is determined by the gender of the noun champ:
- champ is masculine, so:
- un champ (not une champ)
- un grand champ (masculine singular)
- un grand champ vert (both adjectives masculine singular)
If the noun were feminine, everything would switch:
- une maison (feminine) → une grande maison verte
So:
- Decide the noun’s gender (champ = masculine).
- Match the article (un) and adjectives (grand, vert) to that gender and number (masculine singular).
You would need to make the noun and adjectives plural:
- Singular:
- Derrière la maison de ma tante, il y a un grand champ vert.
- Plural:
- Derrière la maison de ma tante, il y a de grands champs verts.
Changes:
- un champ → des champs, but because there is a preceding adjective, it becomes de grands champs in standard French.
- grand → grands (masculine plural)
- vert → verts (masculine plural)
So the full plural form is:
Derrière la maison de ma tante, il y a de grands champs verts.
Yes, a few things are worth noting:
Derrière la maison de ma tante
- derrière: stress on the second syllable: [de‑ʁjɛʁ]. The final -e is silent.
- maison: pronounced [mɛ‑zɔ̃], with a nasal vowel -on.
- de ma tante: the e in de is often very reduced: [də ma] or even closer to [d ma] in fast speech.
- tante: [tɑ̃t], with a nasal -an sound.
il y a un grand champ vert
- il y a is often pronounced almost like one word: [ilja] or even [ija].
- un: nasal vowel [œ̃].
- grand: [gʁɑ̃]; the final -d is silent here.
- champ: [ʃɑ̃].
- vert: [vɛʁ]; final -t is silent.
About liaison:
- No liaison between grand and champ (the next word starts with a consonant).
- You may hear a smooth linking between words, but no special mandatory liaison in this sentence.
The form il y a itself is present tense (there is / there are), but you can change the tense of avoir to express other times:
- Il y avait un grand champ vert. → There was a big green field. (imperfect, past)
- Il y aura un grand champ vert. → There will be a big green field. (future)
- Il y a eu un grand champ vert. → There was a big green field. (sudden/completed past event, passé composé)
In your sentence it is the simple present: il y a → there is / there are.