Prepositions

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Prépositions

One of the eight French parts of speech, prepositions are short but essential words which are placed after a verb, noun, or adjective in order to indicate a relationship between that word and the noun or pronoun that follows.

Par exemple…

Je vais à Paris.		I’m going to Paris.
C’est un livre de français.		It’s a French book. (literally, "book of French")
Cette question est difficile pour moi.		This question is difficult for me.

  Prepositions are tricky because, while they exist in both French and English, there is no nice one-to-one correlation between them. Many French prepositions have more than one English equivalent, depending on how they are used – and vice versa. In addition, a preposition is often needed in French where none is used in English – and vice versa again. This is one of those areas of grammar that you will likely continue to struggle with for a long time. But with time and practice, you’ll get the hang of it.

Here are the most common French prepositions and their typical English translations. Click the links for detailed lessons.

				Notes
à		to, at, in		contraction with le and les may be required
après		after
avant		before
avec		with
chez		at the home/office of, among
contre		against, versus
dans		in
de		from, of, about		contraction with le and les may be required
depuis		since, for
derrière		in back of, behind
devant		in front of
durant		during, while
en		in, to
entre		between
envers		toward
environ		approximately, around
jusque		until, up to
malgré		despite
par		by, through
parmi		among
pendant		during
pour		for
sans		without
sauf		except
selon		according to
sous		under
suivant		according to
sur		on
vers		toward, near

A group of words that, together, function as a preposition is called a prepositional phrase.

  Conseil concis

The noun following a French preposition can sometimes be replaced by an object pronoun.

 Related lessons

• PwLF super list of preposition lessons
• Geographical prepositions
• Prepositions of place
• Adjectives with prepositions
• Nouns with prepositions
• Verbs with prepositions
• Parts of speech
   

 French preposition lesson plans

• The House (Lesson, 6th-9th grade)
• Où suis-je ? (Worksheet, 6th-9th grade)
• Prepositions (Lesson, 7th-9th grade)
   

 En español

• Preposiciones
   

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