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Ton arrière-grand-père a un secret ? Oui, j'en suis sûr.

Ton arrière-grand-père a un secret ? Oui, j'en suis sûr.
Your great-grandfather has a secret? Yes, I am sure of it.
From Lesson 235:The pronoun 'en' with verbs (en)·French

Questions & Answers about Ton arrière-grand-père a un secret ? Oui, j'en suis sûr.

Why do we use "en" here instead of a regular "it" like "le"?
The expression is être sûr de (to be sure of). Because it uses the preposition de, you must use the pronoun en to replace the thing you are sure of (the secret). You cannot use a direct object pronoun like le because of that hidden de.
Why is there a circumflex accent on the "u" in "sûr"?
The accent distinguishes the adjective sûr (sure or certain) from the preposition sur (on). Without it, the sentence would look like it means "I am on it" instead of "I am sure of it".
If a woman is speaking, does "sûr" change?
Yes! Because sûr is an adjective describing the speaker (je), it must agree in gender. A female speaker would say Oui, j'en suis sûre, adding an e at the end.
How does the prefix "arrière-" work in family tree vocabulary?
The word arrière normally means "back" or "behind". When added to a grandparent's title with a hyphen, it translates to "great". So un arrière-grand-père is a great-grandfather, and une arrière-grand-mère is a great-grandmother.

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