Qui en a eu assez ?

Sentence Discussions French
#1
English Translation

Who’s had enough?

Is the “en” required in this sentence? How does the meaning change if it’s omitted?

#2

My understanding is that French doesn’t drop pronouns the way that English does, so y and en are not optional. The use of en in the cloze sentence above is described by the following:

En replaces non precises quantities introduced by words like :

des, beaucoup de, peu de, un peu de, trop de, moins de, plus de, autant de, assez de, suffisamment de, plusieurs, quelques etc.

Here’s a website that describes the use of en in some depth.

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#3

Correct, en is not optional here. You’ll never hear Qui a eu assez ?

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#4

So if en replaces the de from assez de, what is an equivalent sentence that uses the whole assez de phrase? Is it used when there is an explicit noun?

Something like “Qui a eu assez de nourriture”?

#5

Exactement !

  1. “Avez-vous assez de pain pour le dîner ?”
  2. “Est-ce que tu as assez de temps pour lire ce livre ?”
  3. “Avons-nous assez de carburant pour le voyage ?”
  4. “Ont-ils assez de patience pour attendre le bus ?”
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