Could a native speaker weigh in on the following dictionary examples that use "en" for people?
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/en
>> Combien d’élèves y a-t-il dans ta classe ? – Il y en a trente. — How many pupils are there in your class? – There are 30.
- https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/en/28919
>> Tous les invités ne sont pas arrivés, il en manque deux. — All the guests haven't arrived yet, two are missing.
Hi Aaron,
Both sentences are correct -
The first 'en' replaces élèves in -
il y en a trente
You could add, of them to the translation but it is often superfluous in English.
Int the second example 'en' replaces 'invités'.
In the translation of -
Il en manque deux
You could say
two of them are missing
but again superfluous in English.
Necessary in French I am afraid...
Possibly you are thinking of lessons like this one:
En can replace de + [phrase] (French Adverbial Pronouns)
The lesson says to use en for things, but stress pronouns for people. However that doesn't apply when en is used for quantities. You can't say "il y a trente d'eux."
Thanks Alan. That's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking about, and why I asked the question.
Could a native speaker weigh in on the following dictionary examples that use "en" for people?
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/en
>> Combien d’élèves y a-t-il dans ta classe ? – Il y en a trente. — How many pupils are there in your class? – There are 30.
- https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/en/28919
>> Tous les invités ne sont pas arrivés, il en manque deux. — All the guests haven't arrived yet, two are missing.
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