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I am returning to my study of French after a gap, and I have come across this sentence (quoted in "Le Bon Usage" to illustrate a grammatical point) the meaning of which is not clear to me:

"Une [valise] comme on n'en fait plus, sûrement, puisque, d'après elle, on n'en faisait déjà plus de comme ça".

The best translation I can come up with is:

"One [a suitcase] like they don't make any more, certainly, because, according to her, they weren't making any more like that."

I'd be grateful if anyone could come up with a better translation and could explain the functions of the pronouns "en" and the adverb "déjà" in the sentence.

Thanks a lot in advance.

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"One [a suitcase] like they don't make any more, certainly, because, according to her,even then they weren't making any more like that."

Any good?  "déjà " is normally translated as "already" and so I  think "even then might work. It is as if "already" is set in the past.

"en" is a contraction for "d'elles" or "d'eux" if it refers to something masculine  or without a gender.

So "of them" you cpould have said.

ie "One [a suitcase] like they don't make any more, certainly, because, according to her,even then they weren't making any more of them  like that."

Many thanks for the speedy reply, George. Yes, adding "even then"  and "of them"makes the translation read better. Thanks again.

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