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The unit of a grammar book I am using which focuses on the pronoun Y contains this example sentence: Il n'y en a plus. It is listed together with Il n'y va pas. and Je ne m'y intéresse pas. and according to the unit it illustrates the formation of negations with the pronoun Y. The last two sentences are pretty clear, but the first one seems to contain no pronoun Y. Since I don't consider myself advanced enough to doubt the information in the textbook I would be grateful if somebody can help me dispel my doubts. Does the sentence Il n'y en a plus. contain the pronoun Y? Or is Y part of the presentatif Il y a in this case?

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There is no way to remove the y from il n'y en a while keeping the meaning because the pronoun il can't be impersonal in il n'en a plus:

  • Il n'y va pas = Il ne va pas

  • Je ne m'y intéresse pas = Je ne m'intéresse pas à ça

  • Il n'y en a plus = Il n'y a plus de çaIl n'a plus de ça ici.

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  • then what about Il n'y a rien? y is a location here, isn't it? It can't be the object since the object is rien Jun 15 at 8:23
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    @TeleportingGoat If one insist identifying a role for y, that might be some kind of subject: "Ici n'a plus de ça" (There "has" no more of it).
    – jlliagre
    Jun 15 at 11:35

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