De
French preposition
De is a very important and versatile preposition with many different meanings and uses in French. As a preposition, it can express or indicate all of the following:
| I. | Possession or belonging (learn more) | |
| le livre de Paul la bibliothèque de l'université |
Paul's book the university library |
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| II. | Starting point or origin (learn more) | |
| partir de Nice Je suis de Bruxelles |
to leave from (out of) Nice I'm from Brussels |
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| III. | Contents / description of something | |
| une tasse de thé un roman d'amour |
cup of tea love story (story of/about love) |
|
| IV. | Defining feature | |
| le marché de gros une salle de classe le jus d'orange |
wholesale market classroom orange juice |
|
| V. | Cause | |
| mourir de faim fatigué du voyage |
to die of / from hunger tired from the trip |
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| VI. | Means / manner of doing something | |
| écrire de la main gauche répéter de mémoire |
to write with one's left hand to recite from memory |
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When followed by the definite articles le and les, de contracts with them into a single word:
| For example | |||
| de + le | = | du | du salon |
| de + les | = | des | des villes |
| But... | |||
| de + la | de la | de la femme | |
| de + l' | de l' | de l'homme | |
De does not contract with le and les when they are direct objects.
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