Prepositions are a group of invariable words (they never change, because they have no need to conform to gender, number or degree. They join two elements in a sentence, creating a connection between them. One of the most used prepositions in French is “de”.
- “Ce sont les filles de Marie” (They are Marie ‘s daughters) >> here “de” comes linked “Marie” to her daughter
- “Je suis de Paris” >> Like in English “from”, “de” is used for origins
- “C’est l’anniversaire d’Arthur” (it’s Arthur’s birthday) >> the “de” also contracts to “d’ ” as in “the”, “I”… (see lesson 2: the deletion of the final vowel a, e, i from a word, when the following one begins with a vowel or silent h, and is indicated by an apostrophe).
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“De” can have different contractions: Il faut du beurre, des oeufs, et de la farine pour faire de la pâte à crêpes. (You need butter, eggs and flour to make pancake).
| De + l’ | De l’ |
| De + la | De la |
| De + le | Du |
| De + les | Des |
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