Breakdown of Ils s'en sont bien tirés.
être
to be
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
bien
well
s'en tirer
to pull through
Questions & Answers about Ils s'en sont bien tirés.
How does the meaning of tirer change when used as s'en tirer here?
Tirer normally means to pull or to shoot. When used as the pronominal verb s'en tirer, it takes on the idiomatic meaning to pull through, to get out of a tight spot, or to survive a bad situation. The en generally represents the difficult situation they escaped from.
Why are the pronouns arranged as s'en sont?
In the passé composé, object pronouns must come right before the conjugated auxiliary verb (sont). When combining the reflexive pronoun se (contracted to s') and the pronoun en, se always comes first. This gives us s'en sont.
Why is the adverb bien placed in the middle of the verb structure?
In compound tenses like the passé composé, short and common adverbs such as bien, mal, déjà, and souvent are placed between the conjugated auxiliary verb (sont) and the past participle (tirés).
Why does the past participle tirés have an s at the end?
Pronominal verbs always use être in the passé composé. The past participle agrees with the subject when the reflexive pronoun (here, s') is the direct object. Since Ils is masculine plural, we add an s to tiré.
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