Possessive De
Learn how to express possession in French
The French preposition de is used to express possession. It is used in front of a noun or a name in place of the 's or s' in English.
| le livre de Jean | John's book |
| les rues de Rome | Rome's streets, the streets of Rome |
| les pages du livre | the book's pages |
| les pages des livres | the books' pages |
Note that the order of the nouns is inverted in French. John's books translates literally as "the book of John."
As with the partitive article and other de constructions, de contracts with le and les to make du and des (see examples 3 and 4).
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