En, en, en

No, I am not using "en" as a poor substitute for words in a song that I am composing; I wish to help you as a student of French avoid confusion caused by the word "en".

First, I want you to understand that the way we look at things, even if we look at them in a way that is technically wrong, can make our lives a lot easier. For example, I sometimes tell accountants and auditors that have not had any training in using databases that a record is simply a database term for a transaction. While this statement is not actually true, they immediately grasp the concept and I then use a simple trick, the details of which are not important, to help them understand intuitively what a record actually is.

Similarly, the way we look at things when we learn French can make our lives easier or considerably more difficult. I am now about to tell you a lie and I want you to tell yourself this lie as well when learning French as it will help you to avoid confusion. The lie goes as follows: in French, there are three words "en, en and en". They are all pronounced the same but they are three distinct words.

Here are the three words:

1. The "made from" en - this tells us what something is made from, e.g. une montre en or (a gold
    watch)

2. The abstract en - examples include "in English", "into English", "en route, "on the way"

3. The geographical en - this is used to indicate location in or movement towards certain countries
    (femine countries and masculine cities that start with a vowel sound)