French Grammar in Context

Prepositions 189

c pour, e.g.on peut l’aimer pour ses musées(lines 77–8) = you can love it for/because of its
museums.

8 PREPOSITION EXPRESSING CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION

en, e.g. ont été divisés en appartements(lines 46–7) = have been divided into flats.

9 ÀAND EN

The prepositions à, en, can be used with verbs.

a à+ infinitive e.g. À LOUER(line 41) = to let.

b en+ present participle. This is known as a gerund (see Chapter 22).
e.g. en longeant les ruelles(lines 22–3) = while walking along the narrow streets

10 PREPOSITIONS GOVERNING MORE THAN ONE NOUN

When a preposition governs more than one noun, it is considered good practice to repeat the
preposition before each of the nouns, e.g. sanshistoire et sansdéfilé(line 1).

Envolé le souvenir deSpaggiari, deMédecin, deFratoni, etc. (lines 68–9).

Other points to note in the text

• Pronominal verbs: s’offre(line 17); s’attendrit(line 21) (see Chapter 20)


• Past historic: hésita(line 30); appartint(line 30); flirta(line 33); campa(line 33); écrivit(line 71)
  (see Chapter 5)


• Imperfect: as a narrative tense, e.g. notait(line 39); indicating repetition, e.g. venaient(line 53)
  (see Chapter 3)


• années 50(line 12), années 20(line 39): there is no plural on the numeral in French.

Discover more about prepositions

1 EXPRESSIONS OF LOCATION

a à, au(x) As well as the name of a town (see line 3), àgoverns names of countries in the
masculine, e.g. Je serai à Madagascar/au Maroc/aux États-Unis.

b en We have seen that engoverns feminine names of regions. This also extends to
feminine names of countries, e.g. en France, en Italieas well as continents, e.g. en
Europe, en Amérique.
Note that most countries ending with ‘e’ are feminine.

c dans is used for geographical areas such as mountain ranges, e.g. dans le Massif Central;
dans les Pyrénéesas well as French departments, e.g. dans le Var.