French Expressions with En (Adverbial Pronoun)


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French Phrases

The French adverbial pronoun en usually replaces a quantity, a place, or the object of the preposition de. But not always: there are a number of verbs and expressions which include en with no apparent antecedent.

en être à		to be at a certain point, be part of
en faire tout un fromage	(inf)	to make a big fuss about it
en pincer pour	(inf)	to have a big crush (on)
en rester là		to let the matter rest
en revenir à		to return to (previous topic)
en tenir pour		to have a crush on, fancy
en venir à		to (finally) be in a position to
en vouloir	(inf)	to really want to win / succeed
en vouloir à qqun		to be mad at someone
n’en finir jamais de faire		to never stop doing
ne pas en revenir		to not be able to get over something

s’en aller		to go away
s’en faire		to worry
s’en prendre à qqun		to lay into, attack someone
s’en rapporter à		to rely on
s’en retourner	(archaic)	to journey back, return
s’en revenir	(archaic)	to come back
s’en tenir à		to limit oneself to
s’en venir	(archaic)	to come, approach

ce qu’il en coûte		what it costs
… et j’en passe.		… and so on.
J’en ai ras le bol !		I’m sick of it!
J’en peux plus.		I can’t take any more.
Je vous en prie.		You’re welcome. (Literally, I beg you about it.)
Je n’en reviens pas		I can’t get over it, I can’t believe it
Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue		Speak of the devil and he appears

Though it seems redundant, the following expressions can include en as well as de + noun.

c’en est fait de		that’s the end of
en avoir assez (de)		to have had enough (of)
en avoir marre (de)	(familiar)	to be fed up (with)
en avoir ras le bol (de)	(informal)	to have had it up to here (with)
qu’en est il de		what of, what about