French 7: Prepositions

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DE AND À

The most common French prepositions are de ("of"/"from") and à ("to"/"at"). These prepositions can be used in many ways. For instance, they may indicate movement or location.

De and à must contract with definite articles whenever they are adjacent.
Definite ArticleDeÀ
leduau
lade laà la
lesdesaux
If the contraction is followed by a vowel sound, du and de la both become de l' and au and à la both become à l'. This change occurs for euphony only; the nouns do not change genders because of it.

De may be found in numerous fixed expressions, especially in adverbs of quantity.

Most articles can be used immediately after expressions and verbs ending in de, but they must follow contraction and elision rules.

When des appears immediately before an adjective, it changes to de. This only occurs with BANGS adjectives, which come before the noun.

Temporal Prepositions
Choosing a preposition for time depends on the situation, but multiple choices may be appropriate.
Pendant and durant are interchangeable and mean "during" or "for". These are versatile and can be used for most expressions of duration.
Depuis ("since" or "for") can be used for things that are still happening, and it's usually followed by a start date or a duration. It's tricky because a French present tense verb with depuis often translates to an English present perfect tense verb.
En ("in") indicates the length of time an action requires for completion and can be used with any tense.
Pour ("for") is the most limited choice and is only used with aller or partir for future events.
Chez can be combined with a pronoun or noun to refer to someone's home or workplace.
Parmi means "among" and indicates that something is part of a larger group of assorted people, animals, or things.
Devant and avant both mean "before", but devant is spatial while avant is temporal.


Using the word peu ("few"/"little") can be surprisingly complicated. By itself, peu is usually an adverb that diminishes what it modifies and is generally translated using "not very/much/well".
Appending de creates an adverb of quantity that modifies nouns.

449 la foule the crowd noun
450 le disque the disc noun
451 pur/ pure  pure adjective
452 la somme the sum noun
453 du temps  the time  noun
454 faible weak  adjective
455 une pensée a thought noun
456 encore yet 
457 la place the seat  noun
458 du/ de la/ de l'/ des some preposition
459 de of  preposition
460 pour for preposition
461 à at  preposition
462 dans in  preposition
463 au/ à la/ aux at the  preposition
464 sur on preposition
465 sans without preposition
466 entre between preposition
467 sous under preposition
468 vers towards preposition
469 contre against preposition
470 chez at the house of preposition
471 depuis since preposition
472 pendant during  preposition
473 derrière behind  preposition
474 parmi among preposition
475 selon according to  preposition
476 sauf except preposition
477 durant during  preposition
478 malgré despite/ in spite of  preposition
479 après after preposition
480 avant before preposition
481 un peu de  a little of preposition
482 un petit peu de a little bit of  preposition
483 jusque until/ up to  preposition
484 jusqu'à until preposition
485 plus de more than  preposition
486 à côté de next to  preposition
487 près de near to  preposition
488 à cause de because of  preposition
489 moins de less than  preposition
490 autant de as much preposition
491 en train de in the process of  preposition
492 devant in front of  preposition
493 d'après according to  preposition
494 au milieu de in the middle of  preposition
495 auprès de near preposition
496 en dehors de apart from  preposition
497 en-dessous de below preposition
498 au-dessus de Above preposition
499 en haut de Above preposition
500 en bas de below preposition
501 hors de out of  preposition
502 à travers through preposition
503 assez de enough of  preposition
504 plein de full of preposition
505 afin de in order to  preposition
506 grâce à thanks to  preposition
507 loin de far from  preposition
508 autour de around  preposition


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