a dit Maman d'un ton admiratif en le voyant

Question

“a dit Maman d'un ton admiratif en le voyant”

This seems such a strangely constructed sentence! Can anyone break it down?

(i) “admiratif” is an adjective (I think) but the possessive “ton” treats it like a noun.

(ii) “voyant” seems to be used as a present participle here (“the seeing”), but I’ve only seen these preceded by “en” before.

Accepted Answer

Here, 'ton' means 'tone'. So the sentence means, "said mother in an admiring tone when seeing it."

Answer

And the en voyant is there but separated by the le

Answer

Perfect! It’s all been parsed successfully ;) and is making sense now :)

Answer

An object together with a present particple goes in between the "en" and the participle.

He shaves while looking in the mirror. -- Il se rase en regardant dans le miroir.
...said Mom while she saw him. -- ...a dit maman en le voyant.

The first sentence probably looks familiar to you, since et has "en regardant" without an object interspersed between them. The sentence you inquire about has the object "le", which pertains to "en voyant", and which goes in between the "en" and the "voyant".