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When to use en/dans/à in French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5615 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 1 of 16 22 October 2011 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've always struggled a bit with French prepositions. Like, I know the rules regarding countries, en France, dans le pays. But what about other usages, when referring to time, I think it's either dans le même temps or en même temps. When it comes to places, is it au bureau, au foyer? Anybody got any rules regarding these preps?
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| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5017 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 2 of 16 22 October 2011 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do not think there are rules.
Even for countries many are indeed en France, en Belgique, en Italie and many others but you have à Portorico (not sure if Portorico is in one or two words) - à Djibouti - au Yémen - aux Galapagos - en Amérique but aux Etats-Unis - au Canada, au Danemark. About time. En même temps means au même moment, à la même époque Dans le même temps is often used in Sport to say one competitor did the same time than another one, in the Tour the France or in Nordic Ski or others when competitors start one by one. About places. It is au foyer for the place where we drink at the entract of the opera but when a teenager or a child lost his parents or something similar he or she is put en foyer. Une femme au foyer is one who does not have and does not look for a paid job but une femme en foyer is one in a refuge of some kind - if her husband is violent etc. But somebody put en foyer have the right to get out and when he wants to come back - he or she could say I go back au foyer Machin (Machin being the name of this particular foyer). To make it short it is not simple. Still want to learn french ? I think you will be understood even if you do not use the correct preposition - anyway even natives make mistakes maybe not in those cases but who knows. So you are a native norwegian living in France - good luck for french presidency (just in case your name is not Michel but Eva) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 3 of 16 23 October 2011 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I have a list of expressions with prepositions which are easy to mess up in French. The ones regarding time can be pretty important if you work in France ! I try to memorize them as one whole unit ("puzzle chunks"). It makes things easier for me. Of course, like Michel1020 says, for some expressions it may not matter very much.
à ce moment-là ---) a specific point in time, "at 3:00" en ce moment ---) a span of time, "between 2:00 and 3:00" en trois jours ---) within three days dans trois jours ---) in three days, after three days Je ferai ce travail dans trois jours means that the work starts after the three days are over. à l'aide de + thing avec l'aide de + person dans les champs (in the field) à la campagne (in the country) en ville (in the city) la fenêtre donne sur la rue (facing the street) la fenêtre donne sur la cour (facing the courtyard) la fenêtre donne sur le jardin (facing the garden) dans la rue (rue = city street, village street) sur la route (route = between cities) écrire au crayon, au stylo (write with a pencil, pen) montrer du doigt (point with the finger) dans l'escalier (on the stairs = in the stairwell) dans un accident (by means of an accident) The following tip I got from, Training Intensiv,Französisch Grammatik(Klett). For these prepositions try to imagine the position of the object/thing --before-- the action (verb): boire dans un verre (drink something from "within" the glass) manger dans une assiette (eat something from "within" the plate) copier qc dans un livre (copy ... from "within" the book) découper une photo dans une revue (cut a photo from ...."within" the paper) prendre un livre sur une étagère (take a book which was "on" the shelf) Edited by Sunja on 23 October 2011 at 6:42pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5615 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 4 of 16 23 October 2011 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thnx, you guys. I find that these prepositions are amongst the most difficult parts of the French language. Like, I know how to use them for countries, but otherwise, I find them very confusing, since they can mean 'with', 'at', 'in' etc..
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 5 of 16 23 October 2011 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know what you mean! When I find a piece of a sentence that's difficult I put it through Tatoeba. You can find lots of French example sentences translated into various languages. I think repeated exposure is the only way to get past the difficult grammar. I'm totally addicited to Tatoeba -- I'm there right now ;)
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| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4824 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 16 23 October 2011 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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En ce moment means the present. En ce moment, je ne suis pas disponible. I'm not available right now. Venez vers trois heures, je serai disponible à ce moment-là. Come around three, I'll be available then. la fenÊtre donne SUR la rue (facing the street) copier quelque chose dans un livre OR copier quelque chose d'un livre a few notes on en/dans : link Edited by Homogenik on 23 October 2011 at 5:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 7 of 16 23 October 2011 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, I wondered about that. My grammar book says "donne dans la rue". It's seems a common phrase so I'm a bit bothered that this mistake is in my book. I edited my post -- thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4949 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 16 23 October 2011 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Always start with the "biggest bang for the buck" rules and then work your way to rarer specifics.
Easy rule to remember: "en" is used when you describe how long something takes (Je m'habille en dix minutes) - You take 10 minutes to get dressed "dans" is used when you describe how long UNTIL something takes place (Je m'habille dans dix minutes) - You will start to dress yourself in 10 minutes 1 person has voted this message useful |
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