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Heidi

The sentence does not survive these

en, em, ere — pronouns that look like articles

The rule

Unstressed pronouns shrink: ihn → en, ihm → em, dative ihr → ere, es → s. They lean on the verb before them: «Ich han en gsee», «Säg em», «Wie gaht s ere?».

Where it catches you

Here «en» is not «einen» (a) but «ihn» (him), and «em» is not «dem» (the) but «ihm» (to him). If you wait for a noun after it, none comes — the pronoun is the whole object.

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