An Overview of Prepositions

Prepositions allow the writer to establish relationships between things and actions. They indicate origins, destinations, possession, recipients, time, etc.

Common French prepositions are presented in the following table:

Contraction

When the prepositions à and de precede the determiners le and les, the result is a combined form: 

• à + le = au, e.g.: Je le donne au professeur.
• à + les = aux, e.g.: Je le donne aux professeurs.
• de + le = du, e.g.: C'est le bureau du professeur.
• de + les = des, e.g.: C'est la salle des enfants.

Cities, States, Provinces, Countries

To mean "to" or "in", French uses à, au, à la, en or dans le/la, depending on the kind of location. French indicates "from" by de, du or d', again depending on kind of location. This is illustrated in the following table:

 Note:

• use à Québec for the city and au Québec for the province.
• although Japan is an island, write au/du Japon.
• dans le/la can also be used to mean "in" a masculine state.
• write en Corse and en Sardaigne.

Time (pendant, dans, en, pour, depuis)

The words pendant, dans, en, pour and depuis are used to indicate when an action started or how long it lasted. Let's consider each of these in turn:

Pendant:

• means "during/for" and, as such, is used do describe action between two points in time (future or past), e.g.: J'ai voyagé pendant deux jours. Do not use pour for this meaning unless referring to a future event.

Dans:

• means "in" (or "from now), with future reference, e.g.: Je vais le voir dans trois heures. Note that this should not be used for past events. In other words, do NOT write Nous l'avons terminé dans cinq minutes; write Nous l'avons terminé en cinq mintues.

En:

• means "within/in", e.g.: Il faut le faire en cinq minutes. Do not use en to mean "from now".

Pour:

• means "for", but only when referring to the duration of a future event, e.g.: Nous allons voyager pour trois semaines; do not use pour for duration in the past (use pendant instead).

Depuis:

• means "for" or "since", e.g.: On est ici depuis une heure. As such, depuis refers to an action that started in the past and continues in the present.

Verbs Followed by Prepositions

In both English in French some verbs are followed by a preposition (à or de in French), while others are not. The most common verbs are presented in the following tables:

Note that s'intéresser is followed by à, NOT dans; when jouer à is followed by a determiner, a contracted form is used, e.g.: je joue au baseball.

Pay particular attention to the verbs that are followed by de in French, but by "to" in English (e.g.: décider, essayer, oublier, menacer, etc.)

Mistakes to avoid

• don't use sur before days of the week (e.g.: J'arrive lundi and NOT J'arrive sur lundi).
• write en même temps NOT au même temps.
• French prepositions don't come at the end of sentence. This is not just some old-fashioned rule that no one follows (like in English!). All French speakers and writers always follow this convention.
• don't use par with moi-même, elle-même, etc. (e.g.: simply write je l'ai fait moi-même).

More information on anglicisms can be found here.