Placement of double pronouns in passé composé followed by infinitif.

Jaya R.B1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Placement of double pronouns in passé composé followed by infinitif.

J'ai vu des oiseaux passer dans le ciel.

J'y en ai vu passer 

J'en ai vu y passer

Which of the above is right?

Asked 3 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Jaya,

It would be -

J'en ai vu y passer

But in truth, you would probably say -

J'en ai vu passer dans le ciel 

because 'dans le ciel' is too vast a place to be replaced by 'y' and you lose meaning.

Chris - En because it replaces des 

otherwise, your answer replaces les oiseaux

Hope this helps!

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Replaycing les oiseaux (les) and dans le ciel (y):
Je les ai vus y passer.
-- I saw them passing by there.

J'en ai vu y passer. -- I saw them passing by there. (But this time it refers to specific birds of an implied group of birds.) Maybe the translation "I saw some of them pass by there." is more correct in this instance.

Jaya R.B1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Merci Cécile! My doubt is cleared.  J'en ai vu y passer.  

Chris, "des oiseaux" can be replaced only by en, not by les I guess. 

Placement of double pronouns in passé composé followed by infinitif.

J'ai vu des oiseaux passer dans le ciel.

J'y en ai vu passer 

J'en ai vu y passer

Which of the above is right?

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