J'ai vu des oiseaux passer dans le ciel.
J'y en ai vu passer
J'en ai vu y passer
Which of the above is right?
Placement of double pronouns in passé composé followed by infinitif.
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JayaKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Placement of double pronouns in passé composé followed by infinitif.
Asked 2 years ago
Hi Jaya,
It would be -
J'en ai vu y passer
But in truth, you would probably say -
J'en ai vu passer dans le ciel
because 'dans le ciel' is too vast a place to be replaced by 'y' and you lose meaning.
Chris - En because it replaces des
otherwise, your answer replaces les oiseaux
Hope this helps!
Chris Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Replaycing les oiseaux (les) and dans le ciel (y):
Je les ai vus y passer. -- I saw them passing by there.
J'en ai vu y passer. -- I saw them passing by there. (But this time it refers to specific birds of an implied group of birds.) Maybe the translation "I saw some of them pass by there." is more correct in this instance.
JayaKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Merci Cécile! My doubt is cleared. J'en ai vu y passer.
Chris, "des oiseaux" can be replaced only by en, not by les I guess.
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