French
own memories of expressions like these is of a mathematical type formula from which I extracted what I needed, then put them together, turning out something that resembled a child’s first effort at collage. Y En (like a donkey, I was told) did not come my way for years, at which point I had to open my sentences and squeeze them in. This might seem amusing if language teaching had really changed very much. I envy my students, who not only meet “en” within two weeks of beginning, but who take so little to see what is there for anyone to see: when you use “en” you do not say “réglette” and vice-versa; you do not begin a conversation using “en,” it only comes in after the object has been mentioned. And all this can take place without any reference, in any language, to the word “pronoun.” A simple exercise to introduce “en” might go as follows: rods are given out to some of the students and the teacher, holding two of them says: “J’ai deux réglettes et vous en avez une;” a motion with the fingers tells the student he is being asked to comment on the situation from his point of view: “J’ai une réglette et vous en avez deux.” Many students have already done enough work on their listening to be able to hear where it is that “en” has been inserted and can work out “j’en ai” without ever having heard it said first. It takes only as much observation and listening to note what is happening with the expressions “J’ai pris la réglette” and “je l’ai prise.” What pronouns offer us is the possibility of referring to an already mentioned object or person in a shorter form. Les, en,
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