French Language Tips: The Pronoun ‘en’

In French, when ‘en‘ is used as a pronoun it means ‘some’ or ‘of it’ and can therefore replace a phrase beginning with ‘de‘ (or ‘du‘, or ‘des‘). ‘En’ is also used as a preposition, but that usage will not be dealt with in this article. Like the object pronouns and the pronoun ‘y‘, it precedes the verb, as in these examples:

Vous avez du sucre? Vous en avez? – Have you got some sugar? Have you got some?

Tu as des crayons? Oui, j’en ai un. – Have you got any pencils? Yes, I’ve got one (of them).

Il est sorti de la banque. Il en est sorti. – He has come out of the bank. He has come out of it.

As with other pronouns, if there are two consecutive verbs, ‘en‘ may immediately precede the second one:

Je vais prendre des fruits. Je vais en prendre. – I’m going to have some fruit. I’m going to have some.

Nous voulons acheter des livres. Nous voulons en acheter. – We want to buy some books. We want to buy some.

Vous pourrez trouver des framboises dans le jardin. Vous pourrez en trouver dans le jardin. – You can (will be able to) find raspberries in the garden. You can find some in the garden.

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If ‘en’ is used together with one or more of the pronouns ‘me’, ‘te’, ‘se’, ‘nous’, ‘vous’, ‘le’, ‘la’, ‘les’, ‘lui’, ‘leur’ or ‘y’, it will follow them:

Il y a des bananes. Il y en a. – There are some bananas. There are some.

J’ai fait cadeau de l’argent aux enfants. Je leur en ai fait cadeau. – I gave some money as a present to the children. I gave them some as a present.

The rules for using ‘en’ with the imperative (command form) are the same as those for object pronouns: it follows a positive imperative but precedes a negative one, as in these examples:

Prenez du poulet. Prenez-en. – Take some chicken. Take some.

Bois du vin, mais n’en bois pas tout.– Drink some wine, but don’t drink all of it.

With thanks to Elizabeth Allen