Prepositions in French 
                                                                                                      
              Prepositions in French 
               
              A preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns or phrases to other 
              words within a sentence.  They act to connect the people, objects, time and 
              locations of a sentence. 
               
              The following list shows that some prepositions can be remembered as 
              opposites as demonstrated in the Learn French with Alexa video French 
              Essentials lesson 12, which is posted as a link on the Cam, Dursley & District 
              U3A French Intermediate web page. 
               
               
              Examples: 
               
                              (before)        avant        après          (after) 
                                (with)         avec        sans           (without) 
                             (in front)      devant        derrière       (behind) 
                                (near)      près de        loin de        (far) 
                                  (on)           sur       sous           (under) 
                                (here)         voici       voila          (there) 
                                (high)         haut        bas            (low) 
                                                           
                                    (next to)                 à côté de 
                                    (in front of/facing)      en face de 
               
               
              See next page for a table of basic French prepositions                                 
                                                                                                      
                                                                                                      
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                                                                           Prepositions in French 
                                                                                                
             Basic French Prepositions 
              
            French        Common English Equivalent          Comments 
            Preposition 
            à             at, in                             a+le = au     a+les = aux 
            après         after                               
            avant         before                              
            avec          with                                
                                                             For example: 
                          at/to …’s house/place              chez moi = at my house 
            chez          on/from the premises of            je passe chez toi = I’ll come to your 
                          from/at …’s (with a company        house 
                          name)                              je l’ai acheté chez Darty = I bought 
                                                             it at Darty’s 
            contre        against                             
            dans          in(side)                            
            de            of, from                           de+le = du       de+les = des 
                                                              
                                                             Also translates as English for when 
            depuis        since, from                        used to indicate a continuing 
                                                             action, eg I’ve been working for two 
                                                             days = je travaille depuis deux 
                                                             jours. 
            derrière      behind                              
            devant        in front of, outside (the front of)   
                                                             Used mainly with feminine 
            en            in                                 countries and certain figurative 
                                                             expressions 
            entre         between, among                      
                                                             The preposition envers means 
            envers        towards                            “towards” as in “I was kind towards 
                                                             him”.  When talking about physical 
                                                             motion towards something, or 
                                                                                                
                                                                                                
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                                                                           Prepositions in French 
                                                                                                
            French        Common English Equivalent          Comments 
            Preposition 
                                                             progress towards a solution, vers is 
                                                             used. 
                                                             
                                                            Used postpositionally about a third 
            environ      about, approximately               of the time, eg about 30 people can 
                                                            be translated as either environ 30 
                                                            personnes or 30 personnes environ 
            par          by, through                         
            pendant      during                             Also used to mean “for” with a past 
                                                            duration of time 
            pour         for                                 
            sans         without                             
            sauf         except                              
            selon        according to, depending on          
            sous         under(neath)                        
            sur          on                                  
                                                            Also used with dates to mean “in 
            vers         towards                            around …” “circa”.  See also the 
                                                            preposition envers on the previous 
                                                            page. 
                                   
                                                            
                                                                                                
                                                                                                
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