On en était déjà à notre troisième cocktail.

Question

Hi. I am trying to work out why the pronoun "EN" is found in this sentence. Is it there to replace the implied "DE la soirée" as in "On était déjà à notre troisième cocktail de la soirée" ? Or am I way off track ? Thanks for shedding any light here.

(And another thought, could it have equally been "On y était déjà à notre troisième cocktail" with the pronoun "y" used instead of "en" - in this case to replace the implied "dans ce bar" ?)

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Hi Paul ,
You can't as it is an idiomatic expression -
en être à = to have reached the stage of 
Hope this helps!

G Barnett · Answer

In the phrase "un changement de propriétaires" I can't hear the "de". Is the 'de' actually voiced or just part of the end of changement?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Answer

Hi G,
'de' is there but it sorts of runs into propriétaires
d'propriétaires