Breakdown of Le voyageur a beaucoup de bouteilles, mais le douanier le laisse en garder quelques-unes.
mais
but
avoir
to have
beaucoup de
a lot of / many
la bouteille
the bottle
garder
to keep
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
en
of it / of them (quantity)
laisser
to leave (something or someone)
quelques-unes
a few of them (f)
le douanier
the customs officer
le voyageur
the traveler
Questions & Answers about Le voyageur a beaucoup de bouteilles, mais le douanier le laisse en garder quelques-unes.
Why do we use le instead of lui in le laisse?
When using laisser (to let/allow) followed by an infinitive (like garder), the person receiving permission acts as the direct object of the sentence. Therefore, we use the direct object pronoun le (him) rather than the indirect object lui (to him).
Why is the pronoun en placed right before garder instead of before laisse?
In French, an object pronoun usually goes immediately before the verb it logically belongs to. The traveler is keeping 'some of them' (en garder), not letting 'some of them' (en laisse). So, en sits right in front of the infinitive garder.
Why is the word en needed here at all?
Why does the sentence use quelques-unes instead of quelques-uns?
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