Learn French: Ses poules produisent des œufs et elles en produisent beaucoup. - His hens produce eggs, and they produce a lot of them.

Ses poules produisent des œufs et elles en produisent beaucoup.

His hens produce eggs, and they produce a lot of them.

Breakdown of Ses poules produisent des œufs et elles en produisent beaucoup.

and

des

some (plural indefinite)

Questions & Answers about Ses poules produisent des œufs et elles en produisent beaucoup.

Why do we need the word en here, and why is it placed before the verb?

En is an adverbial pronoun that replaces a noun introduced by a quantity or an indefinite article. Here, it replaces des œufs (some eggs), giving the meaning of "of them" in English. In French, pronouns like en must go directly before the conjugated verb, which is why we say elles en produisent (they of-them produce) instead of putting it at the end of the sentence.

Normally we say beaucoup de for "a lot of". Why is there no de at the end of this sentence?

When stating a quantity with a specific noun, you use de, like in beaucoup d'œufs (a lot of eggs). However, because we already replaced the noun "eggs" with the pronoun en earlier in the sentence, the de is dropped. You just leave the quantity word beaucoup by itself at the end to show how many.

Does Ses poules mean "his hens" or "her hens"?

It could be either! In French, possessive adjectives agree with the noun being owned, not the owner. Since poules (hens) is plural, we use the plural form ses. You would need more context from the surrounding conversation to know the gender of the farmer.

Why use elles for "they" instead of ils?