Learn French: Il y en a sur l'assiette, ça me suffit. - There is some on the plate, that is enough for me.

Il y en a sur l'assiette, ça me suffit.

There is some on the plate, that is enough for me.

Breakdown of Il y en a sur l'assiette, ça me suffit.

me, myself (object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about Il y en a sur l'assiette, ça me suffit.

Why is the order y en instead of en y in Il y en a?

When combining object pronouns, French follows a strict order. The pronoun y always comes before en. You will hear il y en a very often because it builds on the common phrase il y a (there is / there are) to mean "there is some" or "there are some".

What is the pronoun en replacing in this sentence?

The pronoun en means "some" or "of it" here. It replaces an unspecified quantity of whatever food or item was just being talked about (for example, de la tarte or des frites), saving you from having to repeat the noun.

Why do we use the pronoun me in ça me suffit?

The verb suffire (to suffice / to be enough) takes an indirect object, meaning it acts like suffire à quelqu'un (to be enough to/for someone). The pronoun me is the indirect object replacing à moi, so it translates to "for me" in this context.

Why is the word order ça me suffit and not ça suffit me?

In French, object pronouns almost always go right before the conjugated verb they belong to. While English says "that is enough for me", French puts the pronoun first: literally, "that for me is enough".