In that case, it's a pronoun used for places . "Allons-y" = "Let's go there!" 'Y' referring to the place where you're going. For example: "Tu vas chez moi?" = "Are you going in my place (house)?" "Oui, J'y vais" = "Yes, I'm going there." *I'm going to add more details later. Late for school :P

the answer above is quite good! This is a feature my native language and french share, and italian to some extent. It is a referencial pronoun (this name is not grammatical, just for explanation). When talking about locations and quantities, in french DU for quantities has a close use as in my native language, you must express that your topicalization is about this subject specifically. The example given is good for you to understand the difference between adding Y and omitting. "are you coming my place? oui, j'y vais! ok, you show you going this place as a target. if you say : "je vais" the other wont understand if you mean you going his house or anywhere else, as the verb change its meaning when using the pronoun or not. In this case, "je vais", could be understood as "i depart", leaving you alone there, or meaning i dont care about you, or any other meaning contrary to the original expressed by questioner. I think french use these pronouns not as much as us, but in any case, learning its correct use is a bit difficult. The problem is that incorrect use may originate some "big" misunderstandings.

I'm native french speaker from france, i find your question pretty hard... For me "s'y prendre" is just a french "expression" used in "s'y prendre à l'avance" (means about "do it earlier" ). Or "s'y prendre mal" = do it in the bad way or "s'y prendre comme une merde" ou "s'y prendre comme un manche" both means "do it in the bad way, like a shit ) comment tu t'y prends pour être en si bonne forme ? = how do you do for have a so good health ? It's like asking what does refer the "let" in "let's go", that's a way to speak, but your question is pretty hard. Good luck ! For me "take car of something" is "prendre soin de quelque chose" in my mind it is different from "s'y prendre" In "s'y prendre" I do not see what the "y" refer to. In allons-y, I don't see neither There are no translation to it in english I'm trying to answer your question, that makes me think a lot about our language, for me this "y" is natural, but it's hard to explain... for me the "y" is use in some contexts, like an involvement. This is really a detail... I don't know I can not answer your question, that's too hard,