Use of pronoun "en" etc

Hi.

I've come across the following sentence in a French dictionary of pronunciation, where the authors are referring to some earlier works. The sentence reads: "Nous citerons seulement les deux plus récents", and they go on to cite the works in question. Now, I would have expected the sentence to read: "Nous en citerons seulement les deux les plus récents", because (1) I thought "en" had to be inserted before the verb when quantities are referred to and (2) because "les deux plus récents" really stands for "les deux ouvrages les plus récents". Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on November 14, 2010 at 9:33am

Hi,
(1) "en" is not concerned with quantities, but with origins, with the intention of avoiding repetitions.
Having employed "en" here would just have accentued where our quotes come from. But it is correct not to add it, because we know what we are talking about (the two most recent).
It would be different if we didn't know the subject : Nous venons de la cuisine -> Nous en venons (we add "en" because "nous venons" wouldn't include the origin of our move)
(2) I don't really know how to explain it... In English, don't you say "the two most recent" and not "the two the most recent" ? It is similar in French.

Hope it would help.

▶ Reply

Key StudentPermalink Reply by Curt Jugg on November 14, 2010 at 11:58pm

Thanks for your reply.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jorge che on November 14, 2010 at 10:20am

actually when the verb uses the preposition "de" you can replace the complement with "en", the thing you need to know are the verbs using "de" in French. In your sentence it is even easier to understand as "venir de" is "to come from" so je viens De la cuisine or j'en viens
Je veux DES tomates = j'en veux
J'ai besoin de mon livre = j'en ai besoin
so anytime you have "de", you can use "en"
Nous citerons seulement les plus récent (from a group of more) and because of "from" which is "de" in French, you will use "en": nous en citerons...

▶ Reply

Key StudentPermalink Reply by Curt Jugg on November 14, 2010 at 11:58pm

Thanks for your reply.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by BENARD Patrick on November 17, 2010 at 10:48am

"Nous en citerons seulement les deux les plus récents"

It's not correct...

'Nous citerons seulement les deux plus récents'

'Nous en citerons seulement que quelques uns' (but in this case, we don't know how much)

'Nous ne citerons seulement que les deux plus récents'

make your choice...