Tag Archive | des

Simple Prepositions – Literal & Idiomatic Uses Part 4

Sep13

Part 4 in this series.

depuis – from/since

“Je n’ai pas revisité Paris depuis 2010.” | “I haven’t been back to Paris since 2010.”

“Depuis son enfance, il rêvait de devenir pilote.” | “From his childhood, he dreamed of becoming a pilot.”

Depuis is used to translate “for” with reference to an action which has/had been continuing for a certain period of time. French requires different tenses from English in this structure. The English form “I have been doing ___ for ___” is rendered by the present tense in French + depuis. The English form “I had been doing ___ for ___” is rendered by the imperfect tense in French + depuis.

  • “Nous travaillons avec cette compagnie depuis l’année dernière.” | “We have been working with that company since last year.”
  • “Le gouvernement menait des négociations avec ses partenaires depuis trois mois.” | “The government had been negotiating with its partners for three months.”

The structure “depuis ___ jusqu’à” translates “from ___ to” in reference to place or time.

  • “Il y aura des embouteillages depuis les Alpes jusqu’à la côte d’Azur.” | “There will be traffic jams from the Alps to Côte d’Azur.”
  • “Ils s’étaient absentés depuis le matin jusqu’au soir.” | “They had stayed away from morning to evening.”

derrière – behind

“Notre agence se trouve derrière l’Hôtel de Ville.” | “Our branch is located behind Town Hall.”

dès – from/from the time of

“Pour la braderie nous ouvrirons dès huit heures.” | “For the annual sales we shall be open from eight o’clock.”

“Dès notre première rencontre nous nous sommes très bien.” | “From the time of our first meeting we got on very well.”

Dès can also be used to translate “from” + place name, when the implication is “from this place onwards”.

  • Dès la région nantaise la production viticole devient importante.” | “From the region of Nantes onwards, wine production becomes significant.”

devant – in front of

“J’ai garé ma voiture devant la tienne.” | “I’ve parked my car in front of yours.”

It looks like this series will end up being about 6 or 7 posts long. Please bear with me, this was bigger than I had initially anticipated, and I don’t want these posts to be too long. Have a great week, everyone!

A bientôt !

Courtney

The Partitive Construction

May5

The Partitive Construction

In English, words like “some” or “any” are understood in sentences like: “Do you want coffee?” or “We have have apples and bananas.” English eliminates the need to use “some” or “any”. French, however, requires the partitive construction, which means that the words “some” or “any” must be expressed.

“Some” or “any” are represented in French by the preposition de plus the form of the definite article that agrees in gender and number of the noun it follows. Before a masculine singular noun, the expression du is used; before a feminine singular noun, de la is used; de l’ is used before a masculine or feminine singular noun which begins with a vowel or a silent h; and before a masculine or feminine plural noun, des is used.

  • Voulez-vous du cafe? – Do you want (some, any) coffee?
  • Nous avons des bananes et des pommes. – We have (some) bananas and (some) apples.

The negative requires de alone, without the article.

Positive

  • Nous avons du fromage. – We have (some) cheese.
  • Il y a des poires. – There are (some) pears.
  • Elle a des amis ici. – She has (some) friends here.

Negative

  • Nous n’avons pas de fromage. – We don’t have any cheese.
  • Il n’y a pas de poires. – There aren’t any pears.
  • Elle n’a pas d’amis ici. – She does’t have any friends here.

 

Have a great week, readers! Please let me know if I can help you with anything. I am happy to help.

Until next time. À bientôt !

Courtney