il y a beau temps
\il j‿a bo tɑ̃\
The verdict
“il y a beau temps” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Depuis longtemps.
Corpus desk
Index FR-il-y-a-beau-temps · il y a beau temps · French
il y a beau temps · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | il y a beau temps |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | \il j‿a bo tɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « il y a beau temps » en français
Rare enough to double-check
il y a beau temps is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as apreposition, transcribed \il j‿a bo tɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Depuis longtemps.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for il y a beau temps, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is il y a beau temps, spelled I-L- -Y- -A- -B-E-A-U- -T-E-M-P-S.
Definition
- 1Depuis longtemps.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how il y a beau temps appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il y a beau temps qu’elle ne produit plus un architecte ; les gens qui s’affublent de ce nom sont des cambrousiers, des maçons dénués de toute personnalité.
La Moussotte n'avait pas été le moins du monde émue de l'absence prolongée de « son homme » ; il y avait beau temps qu'elle était habituée à ces bordées, si régulières qu'elles en étaient presque devenues réglementaires.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.