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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

What does “en” mean in “l’amour en est le miel”?

It could be more clearly translated to

Life is a flower. Love is its honey.

In the translation you provided, this relation could be implicitly understood

Life is a flower. Love is the honey (of this flower).

En together with y are adverbial pronouns. They both replace an antécédent, i.e. a complement previously mentioned in the context.

  • En replaces a complement introduced with de (i.e. with a sense of genitive or ablative);
  • Y replaces a complement introduced with à (i.e. with a sense of instrumental, accusative or locative, but not dative!)

For instance:

Les parents sont fiers de leur enfant. Ils en sont fiers. (ablative)
Il revient de la poste. Il en revient. (ablative)
La vie est une fleur. L’amour en est le miel. (genitive)

Il est passé à la poste. Il y est passé. (accusative)
L’entreprise gagnerait à déployer ses activités. L’entreprise y gagnerait. (instrumental)
Il est parvenu à sa destination. Il y est parvenu. (locative)

Not!

Il commence à manger. Il y commence. (dative)
Il donne donne une croquette à son chien. Il lui donne une croquette. (dative)

Also, because French’s indefinite articles for uncountables or undetermined plurals are built on a genitive / ablative, you will find:

As-tu du pain ? Oui, j’en ai.
As-tu des pommes? Oui, j’en ai.

What is more, it can be used with the undetermined article un or rather with cardinal determiners like un, deux, trois, etc. In which case you have to understand the implicit genitive il a pris une pomme (indéterminée parmis les pommes qui existent).

Il a pris une pomme. Il en a pris une.
Il a pris cinq pommes. Il en a pris cinq.

Be careful! en and y always come last in a series of pronouns.

Il a donné une croquette à son chien. Il lui en a donné une.
Parle-lui-en d’abord.
Donne-m’en plus. Donne-moi-z-en plus

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?