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The prepositions DU and DE
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Hi English speakers who want to Learn french 🙂 !
We use DE and DU, to know when we can use them, we ask the question : what is the noun that follows ?
The preposition DE is used in the following cases :
Proper noun
Examples :
L’ordinateur de Maxime. → Maxime’s computer.
La voiture de Gilbert. → Gilbert’s car.
We do not put an article in front of the names of anyone → L’ordinateur de le Maxime.
A Feminine-singular noun that starts with a consonant
If the name is feminine-singular and begins with a consonant, DE becomes DE LA.
Examples :
La maison de la femme. → La maison de femme. → The house of the woman.
Le toit de la maison. → Le toit de maison. →The roof of the house.
When the designated thing is a generality and it begins with a consonant
Examples :
Le professeur de géographie. → Le professeur de la géographie. → The geography teacher.
biologie and géographie are global things, seen as a whole.
Une leçon de vie. → Une leçon de la vie. → A life lesson.
Life in general, seen as a whole.
The preposition DU is used in the following cases :
| Note : DU can also be a partitive article. Example: Je veux du lait. → I want some milk. We do not talk about it in this article! |
A singular masculine noun that begins with a consonant
DU = DE + LE
Examples :
L’ordinateur du garçon. → L’ordinateur de le garçon. → The boy’s computer.
Je reviens du café. → Je reviens de le café. → I’m coming back from the bar.
Here café means the place where you drink coffee.
A Singular, masculine or feminine noun that begins with a vowel
We use DE L’
Examples :
Le sac de l’étudiant. → The bag of the student.
Le sac de l’étudiante. → The bag of the student.
When the designated thing is a generality and it begins with a vowel
We use D’
Examples :
Le professeur d’orthographe. → The spelling teacher.
This is the spelling in general.
Le professeur d’informatique. → The computer teacher.
It’s computer science in general.
A Masculine or feminine plural noun
We use DES
Examples :
L’ordinateur des garçons. → The boys computer.
Les oreilles des éléphants. → The ears of elephants.
Exercices
1 – La maison………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Catherine.
Catherine’s house.
2 – Le professeur……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………biologie.
The professor of biology.
3 – Les oreilles…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….chien.
The dog’s ears.
4 – Ce midi à la cantine, il y avait……………………………………………………………………………….poisson au menu.
This lunch in the canteen, there was fish on the menu.
5 – Ce joueur a marqué un très beau but……………………………………………………………………………………….tête.
This player scored a beautiful goal of the head.
6 – Quand tu auras fini la vaisselle, tu pourras faire……………………………………………………………………..vélo.
When you finish the dishes, you can ride a bike.
7 – Cette année nous avons eu une belle récolte…………………………………………………………………………….blé.
This year we had a nice harvest of wheat.
8 – Les gens viennent de loin pour participer à la fête………………………………………………………..………village.
People come from far away to participate in the village festival.
9 – Il y a……………………………………………………………………………………………lait dans la recette pour le gâteau.
There is milk in the recipe for the cake.
10 – Les sièges…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….voiture.
The seats of the car.
Answers
1 – de
2 – de
3 – du
4 – du
5 – de la
6 – du
7 – de
8 – du
9 – du
10 – de la
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Thomas Ricomard
Thomas Ricomard specializes in teaching French as a foreign language. He has been providing private lessons since 2015, both in-person and online (via Skype). He taught at the Popular University of the Canton of Geneva (Switzerland) from 2015 to 2018, instructing several groups of 20 students from around the world (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mexico, etc.), ranging from beginner to intermediate levels (A1 to B2). With a Master’s degree in clinical and cognitive psychology from the University of Geneva, his knowledge of psychology allows him to tailor his teaching methods for optimal learning, taking into account factors such as visual memory versus auditory memory. He expresses his passion for the French language through writing texts, including poetry and songs, which he presents publicly at numerous music and slam events.