INTERMEDIATE. LESSON #33. SAINT-MALO
- C’est une bien jolie ville.- Ouais, bof !
- Tiens, tu as fini ta crêpe ?
- Oui, mais j’en veux encore une.
- Non, ça suffit.
- On en a marre de marcher.
- Quand est-ce qu’on va à la plage ?
- On en a déjà parlé. Ce matin, c’est marée basse. Ce sera plus rigolo d’y aller cet après-midi, à marée haute.
- On en a marre !
TRANSLATION
- It’s such a nice city.
- Hum. Not really.
- Say, did you finish your crêpe ?
- Yes, but I want another one.
- No, it’s enough.
- We’re sick of walking.
- When are we going to the beach ?
- We talked about that already. This morning, it’s low tide. It will be more fun to go this afternoon, at high tide.
- Enough !
- It’s such a nice city.
- Hum. Not really.
- Say, did you finish your crêpe ?
- Yes, but I want another one.
- No, it’s enough.
- We’re sick of walking.
- When are we going to the beach ?
- We talked about that already. This morning, it’s low tide. It will be more fun to go this afternoon, at high tide.
- Enough !
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Bof ! is not a polite way to say you don’t really agree. Ouais is a familiar form of oui. You’ll often hear parents say to their children : « On ne dit pas Ouais. On dit oui. » (= you can’t say ouais. You have to say yes.) |
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Crêpe (fém.) : pancake, crêpe. Marée (fém.) : tide. Marée basse (fém.)) : low tide. Marée haute (fém.) : high tide. |
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In this lesson we have the other adverbial pronoun en. We already met it in Beginner 2 — lesson 7. Let’s go further today. En can be used with a number or an adverb of quantity. It replaces the noun. The number is placed as the end of the sentence.
J’en veux encore une.
= Je veux encore une glace. En can replace de and the following noun with verbs and expressions that require de.
On en a déjà parlé.
= on a déjà parlé de cela. At last, we find en in such expressions as On en a marre. It’s required even if it doesn’t really designate or replace something. We could also say On en a marre de marcher. We find this en in similar expressions :
J’en ai assez, j’en ai ras-le-bol, je n’en peux plus.
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Even if Suzanne and Victor don't really seem to appreciate, Saint Malo is a very nice French town. It's
an old walled port city. It’s located in Brittany, in north-western France, on the English channel.
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Translate in English : 1. J’en ai acheté deux. 2. Ils en ont assez de travailler. 3. Est-ce que tu en as envie ? Translate in French : 1. They talked about it yesterday. 2. I read three of them. 3. We’re sick of that. Avoir envie (de) : to be in the mood (for). En avoir assez : to be fed up. Answers |
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