French Pronouns

Pronoms Y et EN

The pronoun y

The pronoun y has two distinct uses:

It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things introduced by the preposition à.
It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase. In this sense, it might be translated as there.
For example:
« Je vais à Paris. » → « J’y vais. » (“I am going to Paris.” → “I am going there.”)
« Est-ce que tu travailles dans ce bureau ? — Non, je n’y travaille plus. » (“Do you work in that office? — No, I do not work there anymore.”)
It is used idiomatically with certain verbs, without replacing anything:
« Il doit y avoir une erreur. » (“There must be a mistake.”)
« Je commence à y voir un peu plus clair. » (“I am starting to see things more clearly.”)

The pronoun en

The pronoun en has the following uses:

It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things (including infinitives) introduced by the preposition de. It is also sometimes used in the same way with people (however, it is more common to use disjunctive pronouns rather than using en in the case of people).:
« Je parle du problème. » → « J’en parle. » (“I am talking about the problem.” → “I am talking about it.”)
« Je parle de Jean. » → « J’en parle. » or « Je parle de lui. » (“I am talking about Jean.” → “I am talking about him.”)
It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase introduced by de (“from”). In this sense, it might be translated as from there:
« Je viens de France. » → « J’en viens. » (“I come from France.” → “I come from there.”)
It is the direct-object pronoun used to replace indefinite direct objects; that is, direct objects that are:
- introduced by the partitive article (including the plural indefinite article)« J’ai bu du jus de pomme. » → « J’en ai bu. » (“I drank some apple juice.” → “I drank some.”)
- introduced by de when the verb is negated« Je n’ai pas vu de vaches. » → Je n’en ai pas vu. (“I did not see any cows.” → “I did not see any.”)
- introduced by a numeral (including the singular indefinite article) or a plural expression (d’autres, certains, quelques)« J’ai mangé une pomme. » → « J’en ai mangé une. » (“I ate an apple.” → “I ate one.”)« J’ai mangé quelques pommes. » → J’en ai mangé quelques-unes. (“I ate a number of apples.” → “I ate a number of them.”)
- introduced by another expression of quantity (usually an adverb + de)« J’ai vendu beaucoup de jus de pomme. » → « J’en ai vendu beaucoup. » (“I sold a lot of apple juice.” → “I sold a lot.”)« J’ai acheté trois kilogrammes de pommes. » → « J’en ai acheté trois kilogrammes. » (“I bought three kilograms of apples.” → “I bought three kilograms.”)
It is used idiomatically with certain verbs, without replacing anything:
« J’en veux à Jean. » (“I am mad at Jean.”)
« Je vais en finir avec lui. » (“I am going to finish things off with him.”)