Il ne croit pas en grand-chose

Question

Il ne croit pas en grand-choseThis is a test question. Could someone help to explain how to understand this "en" used here? I'll imagine "Il n'en croit pas grand-chose" would be correct.

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Hi Zhe,
The verb is
croire en quelque chose (to believe in something)
Il ne croit pas en Dieu= He doesn’t believe in God
Il ne croit pas en grand-chose=He doesn't believe in much at all
Hope this helps!

Maarten Kamp · Answer

The 'en' in the question is the preposition 'in' - «He doesn't believe in much». This is different to what you wrote, which would be "He doesn't believe in it much" (context would be needed to know what 'it' was).

Laurel Lhowe · Answer

In the lesson, pas is included in all the grand-chose examples. I know  one says: CROIRE EN...does EN (in) remove the need for PAS grand-chose?

Laurel Lhowe · Answer

In the lesson, pas is included in all the grand-chose examples. I know  one says: CROIRE EN...does EN (in) remove the need for PAS grand-chose?

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Laurel,

No, you cannot drop the ‘ pas ‘ from the negation ‘ (ne) pas grand-chose ‘ , just as you could not drop the ‘ plus ‘ from ‘ (ne) plus grand-chose ‘.

“ From the lesson: You can never use grand-chose to express much, this exists solely as a negative expression. “

In the verb form ‘ croire en… ‘, en is a preposition that impacts the meaning of the expression. It is not the adverbial pronoun ‘ en ‘.

There is also the form ‘ croire à ‘ - again the preposition ‘ à ‘ impacts the meaning of ‘ croire ‘.

See links to Laura Lawless site.

There are 2 ‘fixed’ constructions in the phrase “ il ne croit pas en grand-chose “

1. Croire en qqc - to believe in something. The verb form here is ‘ croire en ‘

and it is ‘negated’ by

2. (Ne) .. pas grand-chose - not much

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/croire-lesson/

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/expressions/croire-expressions/