It consists of just two letters, yet the French word en has three distinct areas of meaning/usage and four different pronunciations. Here’s everything you need to know abouten.
Grammar
En fits into three different grammatical categories – click the links for detailed lessons.
1) Preposition
As a preposition, en has many meanings related to space, time and more.
| Je suis en Europe. | I’m in Europe. | |
| Il fait les petits gâteaux en 20 minutes. | He makes cupcakes in 20 minutes. (It takes him 20 minutes) |
2) Gerund helper
I suppose en could be considered a preposition here as well, but it’s a pretty distinct usage: en + present participle = gerund.
| Je suis tombé en grimpant l’arbre. | I fell while climbing the tree. | |
| Il les mange en marchant. | He eats them while walking. |
3) Adverbial pronoun
Perhaps the trickiest usage of en is as an adverbial pronoun, when it replaces a quantity, place, or object of the preposition de.
| J’en suis revenu hier. | I came back from there yesterday. | |
| Il en fait une douzaine. | He makes a dozen of them. |