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| La pomme est dans la boîte. La pomme est sur la boîte. |
But they can sometimes be quite tricky....
Prepositions in French deserve a blog of their own. It is a vast territory and a dangerous one to explore.To start, we need to understand what a preposition is. We use them all the time without realising. They are those little words that can change the whole meaning of a sentence:
"I look at the apple"." I look for the apple."
It is the same in French...
Here are the links: basic French prepositions.
More complex list of prepositions
It is all very good to memorise them but it is probably wiser to memorise them in context, for example with a verb or in a sentence.There is no point remembering that en, à and dans mean "in".It is important to know when to use them.
In this last case:
J'habite à Lyon.(estate, town, cities)
J'habite en Normandie/en France. (certain areas, countries, not all of them)
J'habite dans un immeuble /une maison/un appartement.(housing type)
I could carry on but I want to keep the audience awake!
"Dans" and "à" are quite troublesome because they are also involved in the temporal (time) prepositions dilemna:
When to use dans , à, depuis, en and othersto talk about time periods?
Best is to give examples:
DANS.
Je travaille dans une heure.
I (will/start) work in an hour.
A.
Je travaille à 12:30.
I work at 12:30.
DEPUIS.
Je travaille depuis 40 minutes.
I have been working for 40 minutes.
Je travaille depuis 12:00.
I have been working since 12:00.
EN.
Je travaille en 2 heures.
I finish this work in 2 hours.
PENDANT.
Je travaille pendant 3 heures.
I work for (during) 3 hours.
etc etc etc....
Then you have the verbs which take a preposition in French and English:
Je parle à mon amie.
I speak to my friend.
Those which take a preposition in French but not in English:
Je téléphone à mon amie.
I phone my friend.
And those which take a preposition in English but not in French:
Je cherche mon ami.
I am looking for my friend.
Je soigne mon apparence.
I am looking after my apparence.
You must admit that prepositions are a mine field! But they are in all languages. Again, I can't advise enough to learn by meaning and context, maybe trying to memorise simple phrases initially.
Click these links for more information and exercises.
Position prepositions video
Position prepositions activities
Geographical prepositions explained
A/au/aux/en in front of countries
Time prepositions explained
A/dans/pour/pendant/depuis which to use?
all about jouer au/jouer du
Jouer
