"J'en mange le lundi."
Translation:I eat some on Mondays.
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I would say that in the fast version, it's impossible. Do the native speakers hear it?
"En" is representing "some" (whatever food product they were talking about).
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Ever heard the "never end a sentence (phrase) with a preposition"? (or, more jokingly: "a preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with") This is kind of a French application of that. If you "...verb + de..." something, then the reference you later make to it becomes "...en verb."
You can't end a phrase with "de/du/de la/des" so the word that fills in for the "de" becomes "en" and it jumps to before the verb.
"Manges-tu des crêpes?" "J'en mange le lundi"
"As-tu beaucoup de temps?" "Oui, j'en ai beaucoup."
"Fais-tu de la natation?" "J'en fais de toujours!"
etc...
I think I understand what you're trying to say, but my brain just can't comprehend. French seems so temperamental.
So this concept only works when speaking of onself using je? Or could I say: "ont-ils beacoup de temps?" "Oui, ils en ont beacoup"
Also, I recently asked my friend. As-tu un stylo? & she replied "oui j'en ai" but seeing as my question didn't make use of the partitive, was her answer grammatically incorrect?
I don't mean to bombard you with questions but I really appreciated your responce ^ Thanks :)
Except "never end a sentence with a preposition" is a counterfeit rule in English, unlike the French you mention.
Le corresponds to it, while en corresponds to some. "I eat it" is different than "I eat some."
I think it only means "some" when used (as an objective pronoun would) next to the verb. For example:
1: "Do you want ice cream? - I could have some" Here you would use 'en' to replace the noun (hence as pronoun).
2: "I'd like for you to learn some lessons" Here you would use 'de', since it's not a pronoun (the noun lessons is not being replaced!) These forms of the articles are noun as partitive case, I somehow read in a comment by the always insightful native speakers on Duo (Sitesurf I think? Thank you!)
Sadly, English doesn't seem to have two words for these two different cases, so I hope you excuse my long explanation [attempt]
you use 'en' as a pronoun when replacing a word that uses 'de'
Je mange de poulet/j'en mange I eat (some) chicken/I eat some (chicken)
"On Mondays"? Shouldn't it be "on monday" because the phrase is "le lundi" and not "les lundis"?
No, it's an idiom, not to be translated literally. In French, "le lundi" does mean "on Mondays".
Point 4: "le docteur reçoit le lundi et le vendredi OU les lundis et vendredis - the doctor sees patients on Monday and Friday OU Mondays and Fridays"
I wrote "I eat something on Monday" and it was wrong. Is there such a big difference between some and something?
How does one say "I eat the Monday" ? I don't know, let's say I got my food in boxes labelled with the days of the week...I guess the conceptual problem I'm asking for help with is, if "on Monday" is expressed idiomatically with the definite article, how does one then express "the Monday" ? As in, "This Monday, that Monday, and THE Monday after that."
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It would be the same thing. "Je mange le lundi." The hearer would think "huh?!?" And you would clarify "Vois ici: mes boites des jours de la semaine. Cette boite est "lundi" et je le mange!"
Kind of like how in English if you say "I eat Mondays" someone's going to assume that you eat ON Mondays, but with a bit of clarification you can say "no, see my day-of-the-week diet? Here's the 'Monday' and I'm about to eat it!"
Shouldn't "I eat it on Mondays" be accepted if "I eat of it on Mondays" is considered correct? The former sounds more correct than the latter.
Neither should be accepted. "I eat it on Mondays" doesn't quite capture the meaning. There's a slight difference between "I eat some on Mondays" and "I eat it on Mondays". "I eat of it on Mondays" should be flagged as an incorrect response as it doesn't work in English.
So how would one say "I eat it on Mondays"? (That is now accepted as an answer, by the way, rightly or wrongly.)
I remember that "en" means during, in, or about. But why does the translated sentence seems that it doesn't have anything to do with it?
I have a question! This sentece is normally and frequently used for native speakers ? Is there other way to say the same ?
OK so this is something that you habitually do on mondays, not something you are doing just this monday, or just last monday. Is that correct?
Isn't I eat on Mondays the same as I eat on Mondays? I don't understand the difference
"en" can be translated as "this" but can it also be translated as "them'? If not, how would say " You have a different dessert each day? When do you eat cookies? "I eat them on Mondays."
"I eat it Monday" doesn't work? Where I'm from it's acceptable to omit the "on", but I suppose that could be non-standard English?
I will eat some on Mondays. I ate some on Mondays. Is that sentence talking future tense? or What?
Richard - j'en mange le lundi - is Present Tense, but Present can also mean Near Future - something that may happen in the not too distant future - in other words one might say this on a Sunday referring to the Nest day - Monday. But not to be used in the Far Future. I ate is Past Tense. Hope this helps.
I nearly put 'Jean mange le lundi' and then thought, no Duo has never used proper names, so that can't be right, but it made me think!
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The English translation "I eat some mondays" means "I eat some on mondays" where I'm from. But, it was counted wrong.
If "le lundi" is on Mondays, what is it in French for "on Monday" (singular)?
