#"en" in "j'***en*** sais"

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

supple bronze
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does "en" as in "j'en sais" works like "le" as in "je le sais" ?

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like "one" in english

  • are you a musician
  • yes i am one
midnight furnace
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Yes and no

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Yes in the sense that all three words, en, le, and "one", are functioning in principle as pronouns that replace an entity that has already been mentioned or is easily identified. Also, the French pronouns en and le are always associated with a verb

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No in the sense that this basic use is complicated by a number of set phrases where the intended referent of the pronoun is unclear. Instead, the phrase as a whole has meaning

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This ambiguity often occurs on both grammatical (form & structure) and semantic (meaning) levels

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e.g. In the expression in English "take one for the team" there's hardly an identifiable "thing" that's being taken; the referent is unclear. But the phrase as a whole has meaning

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French has its equivalents too, like en savoir

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Here, en doesn't really have an identifiable meaning. But the expression en savoir as a whole basically means to know

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OTOH, the le in Je le sais (= "I know it") has an identifiable meaning. Le savoir is not a set phrase, at least to my knowledge. You will usually be able to point out a set entity or concept when you use le with savoir

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Sorry this is so long I'm hella tired

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But I would be curious to hear where you came across en savoir. It usually occurs in the set phrases en savoir plus = to learn more about, and en savoir long sur qqn/qqch = to be well informed about sb/sth

supple bronze
supple bronze
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j'en sais rien