French en and y: quantities and destinations

Level A2

French en and y: quantities and destinations

You are choosing food before going to a café. Keep two frames separate: en refers back to what you are counting or taking some of; y refers back here to a destination. The number or amount stays in the quantity answer. These are French sentence patterns, not universal translations of ‘some’ and ‘there’.

Start with the name

Prendre is ‘take’: je prends means ‘I take / I’ll take’, and tu prends addresses one familiar person. Du pain means ‘some bread’; des pommes means ‘some apples’; deux pommes means ‘two apples’. Avoir is ‘have’: j’ai means ‘I have’. Aller is ‘go’: je vais means ‘I go / I’m going’, and tu vas means ‘you go / you’re going’. Au café means ‘to the café’, with au = à + le. Listen to the three full sentences.

An object already identified can be replaced by le, la or les; lui refers to a person receiving something or being addressed. Here the new task is different: keeping a quantity, or referring back to a destination.

Quantity frame: J’en prends deux

You have just mentioned apples. Je prends deux pommes becomes J’en prends deux: en refers back to apples, but deux stays. Do not reduce this answer to J’en prends if the number two matters.

With du pain, no exact quantity is stated: Je prends du pain becomes J’en prends, ‘I’ll take some’. In these present-tense sentences en comes before the verb; je becomes j’ before en. This differs from English ‘two of them’, which comes after the verb. En is not a word you can insert wherever English has ‘of’ or ‘some’.

J'en prends deux

Beaucoup de and assez de

Beaucoup de pommes means ‘a lot of apples’; assez de pain means ‘enough bread’, enough for the need in this situation. Use de here, not des or du. Beaucoup and assez do not change for the gender or number of the noun.

When the noun is already known, use en and keep the amount: J’ai beaucoup de pommes → J’en ai beaucoup; J’ai assez de pain → J’en ai assez. In the second pair we mean a sufficient amount of bread. En comes before ai, and beaucoup / assez follow the verb. Listen for J’en ai as a connected group.

Destination frame: J’y vais

The destination is the café. Je vais au café becomes J’y vais, ‘I’m going there’. Here y replaces au café, not the person going. In this present-tense frame it comes before vais, and je becomes j’. Keep this frame separate from the quantity frame: y for this known destination, en for the quantities above.

English puts ‘there’ after the verb. French does not copy that order here. Y has other uses, and English ‘there’ also has other uses; this model is for referring back to a place you are going to.

J'y vais

Food, then the café

Two friends are choosing apples and then checking the destination. The questions use tu, so they are informal. Tu prends des pommes ? asks ‘Are you taking some apples?’; Tu vas au café ? asks ‘Are you going to the café?’ Listen to the exchange and identify what each short answer refers back to. First a quantity: two apples. Then a place: the café.

Recognize these; do not build them yet

En also occurs with an abstract topic: after mentioning a problem, J’en parle means ‘I talk about it’. Parler de means ‘talk about’; this en does not refer to a quantity.

Two pronouns can also occur together. If Paul is receiving two of the apples, Je lui en donne deux means ‘I give him two of them’: lui refers to Paul, en to apples, donne means ‘give’. These two examples are for recognition only. You do not need to learn the full pronoun order or produce abstract uses now.

Your turn: keep the quantity or the destination

Before reading the answer examples, try three replies in French. Apples have just been mentioned: say you’ll take two of them. Bread has just been mentioned: say you have enough of it. The café has just been mentioned: say you’re going there. Every word and pattern has appeared above.

Check the three audio examples in order. Keep deux or assez when the amount matters; put en before prends or ai. For the café, put y before vais. Say one reply, then change the context and choose again.

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