Il y avait means there was but seen as it is the imperfect tense shouldn't it mean there used to be?? Does it mean both?
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Yes, it's a past tense. And it can be translated by a few different past tenses in English depending on the context.– Luke Sawczak ♦Oct 10, 2017 at 23:27
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1 Answer
That depends, for example:
Il y avait une maison ici
means both "there used to be a house" and "there was a house here".
On the other hand:
Il y avait un camion garé ici
means "there was a truck parked here" while:
There used to be a truck parked here
would be better translated by:
Un camion était souvent garé ici
or
Il y avait un camion qui se garait ici
