I just had an oh my god moment with French.
For weeks I have been working on understanding the use of
the word EN in French. Basically, it has
two uses; one, as a preposition, used like the word in, and two as a
pronoun. This word gets used all over
the place, and easily half the time, I don't understand what it brings to the
sentence. Sometimes, I see it like this -- m'en -- and that, I really don't
get. For example, I read once that Je m'en vais means I'm going away. I knew
that Je vais means I go, but the m'en -- that eluded me. I figured that the M came as a contraction of ME (yeah, but why is that even there?). And as for the EN -- forget it. No idea.
And then I discovered this page. And I found this example on it:
and it CLICKED.
In French, some verbs have a SE in front of the verb,
making it a 'reflexive verb'. It means that the thing that's being done
is being done to (or by) ME. For example, if I laver something, I wash it. If I se laver something, I'm washing myself. I actually say ME LAVER, which is the first person singular form of SE LAVER.
So okay. That infinitive verb isn't just débarrasser, it's se débarrasser. The SE is making the verb reflexive. Debarrasser means 'to throw something out'. SE Debarrasseer means that I'm the one who's going to do it. I'm throwing the something out. The reason that the M' is there is because it's a contraction of ME, which is the first-person-singular form of SE, which is part of the verb.
Yeah, okay, fine -- but what about that EN? Why is that there?
Turns out that they're sticking an EN in there as a pronoun -- it's a reference to the thing that's getting thrown out. Instead of saying I'm going to throw out the old shoes, they're saying I'm going to throw them out. In the English word order, that would be I'm going to throw them out-- but in the French word order, its I'm going to them throw out. Just happens that they're sticking that EN right in the middle of the two-word verb... then adding a tense (changing SE to ME) and then contracting it (changing ME to M'') - all of which made me blind to what was actually happening in that sentence.
I would like to believe that they did not do this solely to confuse me. Still... Oh. Oh, Mon, Dieu. It freaking makes sense.
So okay. That infinitive verb isn't just débarrasser, it's se débarrasser. The SE is making the verb reflexive. Debarrasser means 'to throw something out'. SE Debarrasseer means that I'm the one who's going to do it. I'm throwing the something out. The reason that the M' is there is because it's a contraction of ME, which is the first-person-singular form of SE, which is part of the verb.
Yeah, okay, fine -- but what about that EN? Why is that there?
Turns out that they're sticking an EN in there as a pronoun -- it's a reference to the thing that's getting thrown out. Instead of saying I'm going to throw out the old shoes, they're saying I'm going to throw them out. In the English word order, that would be I'm going to throw them out-- but in the French word order, its I'm going to them throw out. Just happens that they're sticking that EN right in the middle of the two-word verb... then adding a tense (changing SE to ME) and then contracting it (changing ME to M'') - all of which made me blind to what was actually happening in that sentence.
I would like to believe that they did not do this solely to confuse me. Still... Oh. Oh, Mon, Dieu. It freaking makes sense.
David Ash, of Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom,
Head of Modern Languages at King Edward's School, creator of this slide -- I thank you.
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