A preposition will be followed by a noun or a pronoun, forming a prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrases often tell us when or where something took place. The two most important French prepostions are de / d' (meaning "of" or "from") and à (meaning "to," "at," "on," or "in"). As you study French, you will learn many uses for these two prepositions.

Note: When the preposition à is written with a small letter, it must have the grave accent mark. The word a, without an accent, is a verb—the third-person singular form of the present tense of avoir. However, when used at the beginning of a sentence and when written with a capital letter, the preposition A may be written with or without the accent. A Paris and À Paris mean the same thing.

Both à and de form contractions with the articles le and les. However, they do not contract with la or l'.

Prepositions and the Partitive

The preposition de is used to form the partitive. This is the French way of speaking of a part of something, of a quantity, rather than referring to the entire thing. In speaking of an entirety, French uses the definite article.

Pay attention to the verb of the sentence, which will help you determine whether you are speaking of a part of something or the entirety of something. In general, verbs of like and dislike (détester, aimer, adorer, etc.) require the definite article:

However, verbs such as donner and acheter require the partitive:

Attention! For the negative, we just use de, rather than the entire partitive, to indicate "any." (Yes, it's a bit complicated.)

Chez

One French preposition that does not have a simple English equivalent is chez. It means "at or to the home or place of" and is usually used with the verbs être and aller. For example, "I'm going to his house" would be expressed as Je vais chez lui. "Sophie is at home" would be expressed as Sophie est chez elle.

The interpretation of chez can be rather elastic. To a person on the moon, chez moi might mean "the planet Earth." To an American in Paris, chez moi might mean the United States. To a resident of St. Louis visiting New York, chez moi could mean Missouri or St. Louis.

Some French restaurants will use chez as part of the restaurant name; for example, Chez Michel ("Michel's Place") is a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada. Chez can also be used to discuss going to a place of business: Jean va chez le dentiste (John goes to the dentist).