28.16: Part 1: 15 THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

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15 THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

The prepositional phrase is composed of a preposition and its complement, a noun phrase. In its entirety, it is either adjectival: modifying an NP, or adverbial: modifying the verb, verb phrase or the whole clause/sentence.

(adjectival)

Le livre sur la table appartient au professeur.

The book on the table belongs to the professor.

(adverbial)

Nous sommes allés en France.

We went to France.

There are some particular groups of prepositions which wel l consider separately in the following two sections.

15.1. Prepositions with Geographical Locations

This is a lexical matter, not really a question of grammar. Certain prepositions are used with names of cities, feminine countries, masculine countries, other geographical locations and they don't regularly correspond to what we'd expect, knowing the "translations" of those prepositions.

CITIES: à

Je vais à Paris.	I'm going to Paris.
Je les ai rencontrés à Bordeaux.	I met them in Bordeaux.
Il passe l'hiver à Nice.	He is spending the winter in Nice.

FEMININE COUNTRIES/CONTINENTS: en

Nous allons en France.	We're going to France.
Il voyage en Chine.	He's traveling in China.
Elle est en Europe.	She's in Europe.

MASCULINE COUNTRIES: au, à l' (à + le)

Elle va au Canada.	She's going to Canada.
Ils fabriquent ces radios au Japon.	They make these radios in Japan.
Il passe ses vacances au Mexique.	He spends his vacations in Mexico.

The prepositions used to express "come from" or "be from" a geographical location are the following:

CITIES: de

Il vient de New York.	He comes from New York.
Ils arrivent de Londres.	They're arriving from London.

FEMININE COUNTRIES/CONTINENTS: de

Elle revient de France.	She's coming back from France.
Ce sont des vins d'Espagne.	These are wines from Spain.

(The article, however, is retained when de means "of," showing possession, e.g., Paris est la capitale de la France, "Paris is the capital of France")

MASCULINE COUNTRIES: du, (de + le)

Il vient du Brésil.

He comes from Brazil.

Miscellaneous comments

Some of our states (United States) are feminine, some masculine, and we have found that native speakers traveling in the United Stares are not consistent in assigning gender, except for obvious States, such as California (en Californie). The best way to handle that problem is to use "dans l'état de X".

J'habite dans l'état de Kansas.	I live in Kansas.
Nous voyageons dans l'état de Californie.	We travel in California.

The United States (the nation) itself is plural, so:

Ils vont aux États-Unis.	They're going to the United Slates.
Ils rentrent des États-Unis.	They're coming back from the United States.

There are various ways of treating islands, island-nations, and other geographical-political entities, none of which need concern us at this level.

The verb visiter, often used in these contexts, does not take a prepositional complement: it takes a direct object.

Je vais visiter la France.	I'm going to visit France.
BUT: Je vais en France. Il voyage en France.	I'm going to France. He's traveling in France.

15.2 Prepositions of Location (Not Geographical)

This again is a lexical matter: there is no "grammatical rule" that we can give you to help classify the prepositions and their meanings uses. What we will do is list the more common prepositions alphabetically, comment on them, and give some examples.

Note, please, that the translations we give are rough equivalents. As you will see, there is no simple one-to-one relationship between the prepositions of English and of French.

à (to, at, in)

Nous allons au théâtre.	We're going to the theater.
Je vais rester à la maison.	I'm going to remain at the house.

Like de, the preposition à contracts with the definite article (masculine singular, and masculine and feminine plural: au, aux). Also, like de, it serves as a particle in the complementary infinitive construction (12.1-a).

avec (with)

Avec qui vas-tu au cinéma?

Who are you going to the movies with?

de (from, of, about)

C'est le livre de Jean.	It's John's book. (LIT: the book of John)
Quand vas-tu sortir du bureau?	When are you going to get out of the office?
Il y a un groupe d'étudiants devant son bureau.	There's a group of students in front of his office.

Like à, the preposition de contracts with the definite article (masculine singular, and masculine and feminine plural: du, des). Also, like à, it serves as a particle in the complementary infinitive construction (12.1-a). A very common use is in the possessive construction (remember, French has no "apostrophe s" for the possessive). And, of course, it is found in the partitive construction (2.2.3).

dans (in, into)

Mon livre est dans la serviette.	My book is in the briefcase.
Il entre dans le métro.	He's going into the metro.
Je vais arriver dans trois¹⁴ minutes.	I'm going to arrive in three minutes.

¹⁴ To express "in" with the sense of the total length of time something takes, French uses en; when expressing the notion of in how much time something will be completed, French uses dans.

derrière (behind)

Sa bicyclette est derrière le garage.

His bicycle is behind the garage.

devant (in front of)

Mettez-le devant la chaise.

Put it in front of the chair.

en (in, at, ...)

Nous sommes en France.	We are in France.
Le Concorde fait ce trajet en quatre heures.	The Concorde makes this crossing in four hours.

près de (near)

Le restaurant est près de la tour Eiffel.

The restaurant is near the Eiffel Tower.

sans (without)

Je le prends sans sucre.

I take it without sugar.

sous (under)

La corbeille est sous la table.

The wastebasket is under the table.

sur (on, on top of)

Son stylo est sur la table.

His pen is on the table.