Prepositions

A preposition is a small word that links a noun (or pronoun) to the rest of the sentence and tells you how things relate — usually where, when or in what direction. English has dozens: on, in, under, to, from, with, behind, between. French is exactly the same idea, just with different words.

The good news for a beginner: French prepositions are short, extremely common, and most of them have one main meaning you can learn like vocabulary.

Here are the everyday ones you will use constantly:

French	English	Example	Meaning
à	to / at / in	à Paris (a pa-REE)	to/in Paris
de	of / from	de Londres (duh LON-druh)	from London
dans	in / inside	dans la boîte (don la bwat)	in the box
sur	on	sur la table (sewr la tabl)	on the table
sous	under	sous le lit (soo luh lee)	under the bed
devant	in front of	devant la gare (duh-VON la gar)	in front of the station
derrière	behind	derrière l'école (deh-ree-AIR lay-KOL)	behind the school
entre	between	entre deux maisons (ontr duh may-ZON)	between two houses
avec	with	avec moi (a-VEK mwa)	with me
chez	at the home of	chez moi (shay mwa)	at my place

Notice that, just like in English, the preposition comes before the noun: sur la table (on the table), word order identical to English.

Worked mini-example. Build "the cat is under the table": the cat = le chat, is = est, under = sous, the table = la table → Le chat est sous la table (luh sha eh soo la tabl). The preposition sous slots in exactly where English puts "under".

This is the single most important grammar point in the whole topic, so go slowly. In French, à and de cannot sit next to le or les — they fuse into a single word. This is called contraction, and it is compulsory.

You might expect	Correct contracted form	English
à + le	au	to/at the
à + les	aux	to/at the (plural)
de + le	du	of/from the
de + les	des	of/from the (plural)

But à and de do not change before la or l'. Those stay exactly as they are:

Article	à form	de form
le (masc.)	au	du
la (fem.)	à la	de la
l' (vowel)	à l'	de l'
les (plural)	aux	des

Examples you should be able to produce instantly:

• Je vais au cinéma. (I'm going to the cinema.) — à + le cinéma
• Je vais à la piscine. (I'm going to the pool.) — no change, la piscine
• *Je vais **à l'*hôpital. (I'm going to the hospital.) — no change, l' hôpital
• Je vais aux toilettes. (I'm going to the toilets.) — à + les toilettes
• Je reviens du parc. (I'm coming back from the park.) — de + le parc
• Il parle des élèves. (He's talking about the students.) — de + les élèves

Worked mini-example. Translate "I'm going to the restaurant" (restaurant is masculine — le restaurant). Start with Je vais (I'm going) + à (to) + le restaurant. The à and le must fuse: à + le → au. Result: Je vais au restaurant. Writing à le restaurant would be marked wrong every time.

These two short words do an enormous amount of work. Learn their main jobs and you can say most of what a beginner needs.

à — 'to', 'at', 'in', and times.

Use	Example	English
Destination	Je vais à Paris.	I'm going to Paris.
Location	Il est à la maison.	He is at home.
Time (clock)	à huit heures	at eight o'clock
A feature	une glace à la vanille	a vanilla ice cream

de — 'of', 'from', possession, origin.

Use	Example	English
Origin	Je viens de Londres.	I come from London.
Possession	le livre de Marie	Marie's book (the book of Marie)
Material/contents	une tasse de café	a cup of coffee
Starting point	de neuf heures à midi	from nine o'clock to midday

Possession is backwards from English. English uses 's: Marie's book. French has no 's — it uses de, in the order the book of Marie:

• le sac de mon frère — my brother's bag (the bag of my brother)
• la voiture du professeur — the teacher's car (remember: de + le → du)
• les amis des élèves — the students' friends (de + les → des)

Worked mini-example. Say "the dog's name" (the name of the dog; chien = masculine, le chien). Build it as le nom (the name) + de (of) + le chien. Contract de + le → du: le nom du chien. Not le nom de le chien.

Saying 'to' or 'in' a place follows a neat set of rules once you know the place's gender and whether it is a city or a country.

Cities are easy — always à.

• Je vais à Paris. (I'm going to Paris.)
• J'habite à Londres. (I live in London.)
• à covers both 'to' and 'in' for any town or city.

Countries depend on gender and number.

Country type	Word for 'to/in'	Example	English
Feminine country (most ending in -e)	en	en France, en Espagne	to/in France, Spain
Masculine country	au	au Canada, au Japon	to/in Canada, Japan
Plural country	aux	aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas	to/in the USA, Netherlands
Country starting with a vowel	en	en Italie, en Iran	to/in Italy, Iran

A reliable shortcut: most countries ending in -e are feminine and take en (la France → en France, l'Espagne → en Espagne, l'Italie → en Italie). The big exception to learn is le Mexique (Mexico) — it ends in -e but is masculine, so au Mexique.

Masculine and plural examples to memorise:

• au Canada, au Japon, au Portugal, au Maroc (Morocco)
• aux États-Unis (USA), aux Pays-Bas (Netherlands)

For 'from' a country, use de / du / des:

• Je viens de France. (from a feminine country — de, no article)
• Je viens du Canada. (from a masculine country — de + le → du)
• Je viens des États-Unis. (from a plural country — de + les → des)

Worked mini-example. Translate "I am going to Spain and then to Canada." Spain (l'Espagne) is feminine → en Espagne. Canada (le Canada) is masculine → au Canada. Result: Je vais en Espagne, puis au Canada.

To describe a room, a photo, or where you put something, you need the place prepositions. Most are single words; a few are 'compound' prepositions that end in de.

Single-word place prepositions:

French	English	Example
dans	in / inside	dans ma chambre (in my room)
sur	on	sur le bureau (on the desk)
sous	under	sous la chaise (under the chair)
devant	in front of	devant la maison (in front of the house)
derrière	behind	derrière le canapé (behind the sofa)
entre	between	entre le lit et la fenêtre (between the bed and the window)
vers	towards	vers la porte (towards the door)

Compound prepositions (these end in de, so they contract!):

French	English	With le → contracts
à côté de	next to	à côté du lit (next to the bed)
près de	near	près du parc (near the park)
loin de	far from	loin de la ville (far from the town)
en face de	opposite	*en face **de l'*école (opposite the school)
au-dessus de	above	au-dessus de la porte (above the door)
au-dessous de	below	au-dessous du tableau (below the board)

Because these end in de, the contraction rule kicks in again: à côté de + le → à côté du, près de + les → près des.

chez — the specially French one. chez means 'at/to the home or place of (a person)'. English needs several words for what chez does in one:

• chez moi — at my house / at my place
• chez toi — at your place
• chez Marie — at Marie's
• chez le médecin — at the doctor's
• chez le coiffeur — at the hairdresser's

Worked mini-example. Describe a cat 'next to the sofa' (le canapé = sofa, masculine). The phrase is à côté de + le canapé. The de meets le, so it contracts: de + le → du. Result: Le chat est à côté du canapé (the cat is next to the sofa).

Prepositions almost never translate word-for-word, so the safest approach is to learn the verb together with its preposition as a single chunk. Two patterns cause most beginner errors.

Pattern 1 — French uses NO preposition where English does. A handful of very common verbs are directly followed by their object in French, even though English inserts a little word (to, for, at):

French (no preposition)	English (with preposition)
écouter la musique	to listen to music
regarder la télé	to look at / watch TV
attendre le bus	to wait for the bus
chercher mes clés	to look for my keys
demander l'addition	to ask for the bill
payer le repas	to pay for the meal

So "I'm waiting for the bus" is simply J'attends le bus — no word for 'for'.

Pattern 2 — French ADDS a preposition where English uses none (or a different one).

French	English	Note
jouer au foot	to play football	jouer à + sport
jouer du piano	to play the piano	jouer de + instrument
penser à mes amis	to think about my friends	penser à
téléphoner à Marie	to phone Marie	téléphoner à (someone)
entrer dans la salle	to enter the room	entrer dans

Worked mini-example. Translate "I'm looking for my brother" (chercher = to look for; mon frère = my brother). Chercher already means 'to look for', so you do not add a word for 'for': Je cherche mon frère. Adding pour (for) — je cherche pour mon frère — would be wrong.