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The French preposition de
The French preposition de is in many ways a special preposition. It can have
a variety of meanings, as well as various "functional" uses (where it serves a grammatical
purpose but doesn't have much meaning as such). Unlike practically all prepositions in the
language, it also combines with le and les to produce some special alternative forms.
Meanings and uses of de
The preposition de has a variety of meanings, including most commonly
the following:
- from, especially when used with a verb of motion: il vient de Paris = he comes from Paris;
- of with so-called "picture" constructions: une image de Paris =
a picture of Paris; un enregistrement de l'orchestre =
a recording of the band;
- the equivalent of of when denoting a component or quantity
of something, or
in forming a compound: le pied de la table =
the leg of the table, the table leg;
- the equivalent of possessive 's:
le livre de Jean = Jean's book;
- the equivalent of of, from when describing the cause of
something, e.g. mourir de/d'un cancer = to die of cancer;
- the equivalent of of when indicating the material that
something is made out of;
- in many cases to introduce the "object" of an adjective, where English often
uses with: content de lui = happy with him;
couvert de neige = covered with/in snow;
de meaning from
One of the most common uses of the preposition de is to mean from
when describing the place that something or somebody is moving or comes from
or when marking the start of a period of time or start of a range of numbers
(note that with numbers in English it's more common to use between...and... than
from...to..., but the meaning is essentially the same):
For example:
Il vient de Paris
He comes from Paris (="he was born there" etc)
He's coming from Paris (="he's travelling from there now")
Le magasin est fermé du lundi au mercredi
The shop is closed from Monday to Wednesday
Il y a de 5 à 10 personnes
There are from 5 to 10 people, there are between 5 and 10 people
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French doesn't tend to use de— but English uses from—
in the following cases:
- to denote the origin of a choice or action of taking, in which case
the preposition chosen is usually the same one that would be chosen if you were
simply describing the place that the source was in: for example
I took it from my pocket would usually be je l'ai pris dans
ma poche; I drank from the bottle would usually be
j'ai bu à/dans la bouteille;
- when only the starting point of a range of prices/dates is mentioned, in which
case depuis or à partir de tend to be used instead
("clothes from 10 Euros" = vêtements à partir de 10 euros);
- in a few cases of ambiguity between "from" (origin) and "of" (belonging), in which
case other prepositions or expressions such as depuis, en provenance de would
tend to be used (see below).
On the next page, we look at de as the
equivalent of of.
This page written by Neil Coffey. Copyright © Javamex UK 2017. All rights reserved.
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