In the phrase "J'en viens ..." what is the en referring to? It seems superfluous.

Graham T.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

In the phrase "J'en viens ..." what is the en referring to? It seems superfluous.

Asked 5 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Well spotted, Graham!

Here, the 'en' is idiomatic . The actual sentence is -

'....j'en viens à ne plus vouloir y aller '  ( y = au cinéma)

The expression is 'en venir à' which is 'to come to' 

e.g.

Les deux parties politiques en sont  finalement venus  à un accord = The two political parties finally came to a agreement

En venir aux mains = to come to blows

Hope this helps!

Todd S.A1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I can't see the lesson, as I haven't upgraded my account. But generally, j'en viens means I come from there, where en replaces de and refers to a place already mentioned.

e.g.:

Je viens de France. = I'm from France.

J'en viens. = I'm from there.

En is known as an adverbial pronoun here, and can be used to replace de in many circumstances, but will always come before the verb (except for in the imperative tense). 

Todd S.A1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Disregard my response, as I didn't know the context, and now I see it's irrelevant! Sorry!

Graham T.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Thank you Cecile

Graham T. asked:

In the phrase "J'en viens ..." what is the en referring to? It seems superfluous.

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