Dative + en

Dative Combined with Partitive En

Level 4

Keep the recipient pronoun and add en when a quantified object is understood.

How It Works

In li dono dos llibres, li identifies the recipient and dos llibres identifies the thing given. Replacing the noun while keeping its quantity gives li'n dono dos. Before a vowel, the apostrophe shifts: li n'he donat dos.

With a plural recipient, formal els combines with en as els en: els en donaré tres. The number of recipients and the quantity of objects are independent. Two books for one person and one book for several people require different recipient pronouns.

Regional combinations differ: n'hi also occurs for singular-recipient plus partitive en in some varieties. Learn the explicit li'n/li n’ pattern here and do not assume every n'hi elsewhere has a recipient meaning.

Examples (3)

  1. Li'n dono dos.

    I give him two of them.

  2. Li n'he comprat tres.

    I bought her three of them.

  3. Els en portarem quatre.

    We will bring them four of them.

How It Connects

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Dative + enLevel 4Dative Combined with Partitive En

Learn This First

Identify the recipient and its number before combining it with another object. Keep the quantity when en replaces an understood noun.

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Words in This Pattern