French preposition
The preposition sur is often equivalent to "on," but has many other possible translations.
1a) Location – "on" | |||
| Ton sac est sur le canapé. | Your bag is on the couch. | ||
| Je l’ai lu sur internet. | I read it on the internet. | ||
| La poste est sur ma route. | The post office is on my way. | ||
1b) Location – other translations | |||
| C’est qui sur cette photo ? | Who is in this picture? | ||
| Il y a beaucoup de pommes sur le marché. | There are a lot of apples at the market. | ||
| Il pleut sur toute la France. | It’s raining all over France. | ||
2) Direction / Heading | |||
| un vol sur Paris | a flight to Paris | ||
| revenir sur | to return to | ||
| tourner sur la droite / gauche | to turn right / left | ||
3) Topic | |||
| une conférence sur le climat | a conference about the climate | ||
| des renseignements sur Paris | information about Paris | ||
| un film / livre sur Charles de Gaulle | a movie / book about Charles de Gaulle | ||
4) Reason or Requirement | |||
| sur commande | commissioned, to order | ||
| sur invitation (uniquement) | by invitation (only) | ||
| sur présentation d’une pièce d’identité | upon presentation of proof of identity | ||
| sur un signe (de quelqu’un) | at (someone’s) signal | ||
5) Approximate Time / Age | |||
| On mange sur les dix-huit heures. | We eat around 6pm. | ||
| Il va sur la quarantaine. | He’s going on 40 (years old). | ||
6) Period of time | |||
| sur une année | over (the course of) a year | ||
| sur une période de deux semaines | over a period of two weeks | ||
7) Measurements | |||
| il s’étend sur cinq mètres | it’s five meters long | ||
| il fait deux mètres sur trois | it’s two by three meters | ||
8) Ratio | |||
| une chance sur deux | fifty-fifty chance | ||
| une chance sur cinq | one in five chance | ||
| quatre fois sur cinq | four out of five times | ||
| un samedi sur deux | every other Saturday | ||
9) After Verbs | |||
| Many verbs must be followed by sur in front of a noun. | |||
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