71 - Prepositions For Places in French (Part I)
Listen to this episode to learn how to translate the preposition “from” before places. (eg. “I come back from the cinema.”)
If you’d prefer to listen on the go, listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Links & Cheat Sheet
Lesson cheatsheet: Prepositions For Places in French 📝
Lesson exercises: French Exercises Library 📚
Transcript
Intro: Welcome to the French Made Easy podcast, where I give you all the basics you need to speak French clearly and confidently. I'm your host, Mathilde, and I'm a French teacher, mumpreneur, and bread and cheese lover. Join me as I dive into all things French for beginners, and deliver to you bite-sized and easy-to-follow lessons every Tuesday. Let's get started, "on commence"!
Hello everyone! Bonjour à tous! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast! This is episode number 71, numéro 71.
In this lesson, you'll be learning some prepositions, and more precisely, prepositions before places.
And by the way, if you want to learn more about what prepositions to use before countries and cities, listen to episodes number 58, 59, and 60.
Anyways, so for example, when I say " I go to the cinema," "I come from the cinema" or "I am at the cinema."
These little words, "from," "to," and "at" before places, are the prepositions we're going to learn.
Today, in this episode, we'll only focus on the preposition "from" before places, and in next week's episode, we'll see the prepositions "to" and "at."
Before we get started, if you're new to the podcast, make sure you have your lesson's cheat sheet in front of you, so you can have a look at the words while hearing them.
After the lesson, head over to the French Made Easy Library to download your lesson's exercises. The link is in the episodes notes on the podcast platform you're listening to.
Alright, vous êtes prêts? Let's get started.
So as I said earlier, let's start with the preposition "from."
When followed by a place, here are the prepositions you need to use to translate the word "from":
du
de la
de l'
des
Now, which one to choose?
It depends on three things. If you've already listened to my other episodes on prepositions, you already know what it depends on, but let's learn it again for those who don't know:
Is the name of the place feminine or masculine?
Is the name of the place singular or plural?
Does the name of the place starts with a vowel or not?
That is why you can often hear me saying: "make sure you know the gender of words."
If the place is masculine singular, use "du"
For example:
"Je reviens* du théâtre." (I come back from the theater.)
If the place is feminine singular, use "de la"
For example:
"Je reviens de la bibliothèque." (I come back from the library.)
If the place is feminine or masculine singular starting with a vowel, use "de l'"
For example:
"Je reviens de l'opéra." (I come back from the opera.)
If the place is plural, use "des"
Sorry I couldn't find any example with plural nouns that was a bit more pleasant!
"Je reviens des toilettes." (I come back from the toilets.)
So, to recap:
To say "from" before a place use:
"du" if the place is masculine singular
"de la" if the place is feminine singular
"de l'" if the place is feminine or masculine singular starting with a vowel
"des" if the place is plural
And voilà! That's now the end of today's lesson! Thanks so much for listening. Don't forget to go and download your lesson's exercises to practice what you've learned today. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate a quick rating and review on Apple Podcast.
Talk to you guys next week!
Merci beaucoup, et à bientôt!
NOTES:
* “je reviens” is from the verb “revenir,” which means “to come back” or “to return.”