chapter 5.8 "y" and "en" are not used for people?

I am currently working on chapter 5.8 

It states that “y” and “en” are not used to replace people.

“But it’s important to note that like y, en can’t be used to replace people.”

But there are examples where it replaces people.

J’ai trois frères → J’en ai trois

Louis à plusieurs amis → Louis en à plusieurs.

That is a bit confusing - I am missing an explenation for that.

Is it that “frères” and “amis” are categories of people?

So should it be that “y, en can’t be used to replace specific people, named in the sentence”?

I'm not a native english speaker, so there might be a better way to explain my thoughts.

I remembered another similar example in chapter 3.3 “visiting a french town”.

Il y a deux garçons dans la voiture et il y en a un dans la rue.

So is it kinda: groups/categories of people combined with numbers - then you use “en” allthough it is usually not used for people? 

I asked a french guy but he forgot his grammar that he learned in school of course and couldn't remember the rule behind it. 

I know the french were creative with their grammar and resulting rules and more rules for the exception for the rules. I am missing one exception rule here ;-)

I was just looking through the updated grammar modules and noticed this myself; I was going to raise a comment but spotted yours.

I suspect your suggestion that categories of people are the exception could be the answer, and the rule only applies to specific people, i.e. where they are named or have a title or something?  

In any case the lesson might need a clarification.

Will look forward to the answer!

Hey Peter,
since I didn't get an answer here, I contacted rocketlanguages directly through the “got feedback” option to every lesson and actually got a personal response.

"In French, en is often used to replace nouns introduced by a partitive article (like du, de la, des) or to express a quantity of something. It is not typically used to replace specific named individuals (as you mentioned), which is why you have encountered the rule you mentioned. However, there are situations where en can replace people when they are part of a group or category, especially when the focus is on quantity or the idea of "some of them."
 
Let's look at your examples:
 
J'ai trois frères → J'en ai trois - In this case, en is used because you are talking about a quantity of brothers, not specifying their names. It's like saying "I have three of them (brothers)."
 
Louis a plusieurs amis → Louis en a plusieurs - Here, en is used to indicate that Louis has several friends (a quantity of them). You are not naming the friends individually, but you are referring to the group of friends.
 
Il y a deux garçons dans la voiture et il y en a un dans la rue - In this sentence, en is used to indicate that there are two boys in the car and one (of them) in the street. Again, it's about referring to a quantity of individuals, not naming them individually.
 
So, you're correct in thinking that en often relates to groups or categories of people and is used to avoid naming them individually. While they are still people, the focus is on the quantity or the idea of "some of them" rather than their specific names. This usage can indeed be a bit tricky, but with practice and exposure to the language, it becomes more intuitive."

First: thank you to rocket french for answering - a service probably not every course from other companies offer.

Second: my assumption was right

Third: I think it should be included into chapter 5.8 

 

ArminZ,

Thanks, and I agree that the lesson ought to be amended, since as it stands it is somewhat confusing.