De - French Preposition - Lawless French Grammar


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French preposition

The preposition de is generally summarized as "of, from, or about," but it has quite a few more meanings and uses than that.

When de is followed by the definite article le or les, the two words must contract.

		le	les		But…		la	l’
de		du	des				de la	de l’

However, de does not contract with the direct objects le and les.

J’ai promis de le faire – I promised to do it.

1) Origin or starting point
	Il est du Midi.	He’s from the South of France.
	Nous arrivons de Lille.	We’re arriving from Lille.
2) Reference point
	Nous sommes à 5 km de la plage.	We’re 5 kilometers from the beach.
	Il habite à 20 minutes d’ici.	He lives 20 minutes from here.
3) Possession
	la voiture de Nicole	Nicole’s car
	la poste de Brest	Brest’s post office
4) Description, defining feature
	la soupe de tomates	tomato soup
	un bébé de 3 mois	a three-month-old baby
5) Contents
	un verre de vin	glass of wine
	un film de guerre	war film, film about war
6) Cause or reason
	rougir de honte	to blush with shame
	être mécontent de la décision	to be annoyed about the decision
7) Means or manner
	dessiner de la main gauche	to draw left-handed
	regarder d’un air admiratif	to look at admiringly
8) Start of a period of time / range
	J’ai travaillé de 8h à midi.	I worked from 8am to noon.
	du lundi au samedi	from Monday to Saturday
9) Presentation of agent in the passive voice
	Elle est très appréciée de ses étudiants.	She is well liked by her students.
	Je serai accompagné de mon père.	I’ll be accompanied by my father.
10) After verbs
	Many verbs must be followed by de in front of a noun or infinitive.
11) After adjectives
	Some adjectives must be followed by de in front of a noun or infinitive.
12) After merci
	Merci de votre assistance.	Thank you for your assistance.
	Merci de vs merci pour