Questions & Answers about Du sel ? J'en ai ajouté une pincée.
Why doesn't the past participle ajouté agree with anything here?
Usually, a past participle agrees with a preceding direct object. Here, the pronoun en comes before the verb, and the rule is that past participles never agree with en. Furthermore, the actual direct object, une pincée, comes after the verb, so it wouldn't trigger agreement anyway. What exactly does en replace in this sentence?
It replaces de sel (of salt). Expressions of quantity like une pincée (a pinch) are always followed by de. The full underlying thought is J'ai ajouté une pincée de sel. To avoid repeating the word salt, en steps in for de sel and moves before the verb. Could I just say J'ai ajouté une pincée and leave out en?
No, French is stricter about this than English. While in English you can just say 'I added a pinch,' in French, if you state a quantity, you must grammatically link it to what is being measured. If the noun isn't explicitly stated right there, you must use en to represent it. Why start with Du sel instead of just Sel?
French nouns almost always require an article. Since salt is an uncountable noun, you must use the partitive article du (meaning 'some' salt) when introducing it, even in a short question like this. Learn Du sel ? J'en ai ajouté une pincée and more in French
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