This deep dive covers en — Replacing de + Noun or a Quantity within Object pronouns, y and en for GCSE French. Revise Object pronouns, y and en in Core Grammar Toolkit for GCSE French with 15 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 5 of 8 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
📋 en — Replacing de + Noun or a Quantity
en replaces de + noun. It is also used to replace a noun introduced by a partitive article (du/de la/des) or a quantity expression. It means some, any, of it, of them.
| Full form | With en | English |
|---|---|---|
| Tu veux du café? | Tu en veux? | Do you want some (of it)? |
| J'ai des sœurs. | J'en ai. | I have some. |
| J'ai trois sœurs. | J'en ai trois. | I have three (of them). |
| Elle revient de Paris. | Elle en revient. | She's coming back from there. |
| Il parle de ses problèmes. | Il en parle. | He talks about them. |
⭐ Keeping the Number with en
When the original sentence has a number or quantity word, it stays in the sentence after the verb when you use en.
J'ai deux chats → J'en ai deux. | Elle mange beaucoup de fruits → Elle en mange beaucoup.
Tu as mangé de la pizza? — Oui, j'en ai mangé une grande part.
Did you eat any pizza? — Yes, I ate a large slice of it.
- en replaces de la pizza (partitive article + noun)
- Quantity phrase une grande part stays after the past participle
Practice questions for Object pronouns, y and en
Which sentence correctly replaces the underlined phrase? Tu vas **au marché** ce matin?
Tu veux **des fraises**? Oui, j'___ veux beaucoup.