Y can replace à + [thing/object/location] (French Adverbial Pronouns)

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE

Last updated: 2024-04-20

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You've already learned that the pronoun "y" is used to mean there (See Y = There (French Adverbial Pronouns)).

Now here is another usage of "y".

How to use "y" to replace à + [thing/object/place] in French

Look at these sentences:

Elle répond à une lettre. Elle y répond.She's answering a letter. She's answering it.

Nous nous intéressons au sport. Nous nous y intéressons. We're interested in sport. We're interested in it.

Il pense à ses vacances. Il y pense.He's thinking of his holidays. He's thinking of them.

-> Note that y can replace plural things.

Nous pensons à faire nos devoirs. Nous y pensons.We're thinking about doing our homework. We're thinking about it.

In French, adverbial pronoun y can replace a group introduced by the preposition à + [thing(s)/object(s)/location(s)] - except people - particularly with verbs that require the preposition à.

In such cases, remember that y replaces the whole à +[noun group].

Case of people

The group à + [people] becomes simply their matching indirect pronoun, as follows:

Nous avons répondu à Sabrina. Nous lui avons répondu oui.We replied to Sabrina. We replied yes to her.

J'écrirai à mes cousines. Je leur écrirai bientôt.I'll write to my cousins. I'll write to them soon.

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