{"id":118156,"date":"2023-06-23T11:29:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T15:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/french-prepositions\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T07:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:48:53","slug":"french-prepositions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/french\/french-prepositions\/","title":{"rendered":"French Prepositions: The Ultimate Guide (with Audio and Examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In English, you get on<\/strong> the train. In French, you get in<\/strong> the train.\u00a0In English, you’re in<\/strong> bed. In French, you’re\u00a0at<\/strong> your bed.<\/p>\n

Prepositions in French can be really tricky because they don\u2019t always work like in English (or other languages)\u2013which means you have to learn them from scratch.\u00a0Read on to learn about important French prepositions for time, place and movement.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc skip=4]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What are Prepositions?\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Just from the word “preposition,” you can already guess that it’s a word that comes before something; it’s pre-posed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In reality, a preposition is a word that gives you an indication of one of three things: place, time<\/strong> or movement<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at each of these:\u00a0<\/p>\n

French Prepositions of Place<\/h2>\n

French prepositions of place<\/a> are the easiest to tackle because they’re the easiest to imagine.<\/p>\n

They allow you to physically situate a person, place or thing in space. The French prepositions of place are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
French Preposition<\/td>English<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sur <\/a>\n <\/td>on<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sous <\/a>\n <\/td>under<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
entre <\/a>\n <\/td>between<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dans <\/a>\n <\/td>in<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
devant <\/a>\n <\/td>in front of<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
derri\u00e8re <\/a>\n <\/td>behind<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
chez <\/a>\n <\/td>at the place of<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e0 <\/a>\n <\/td>at<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Sur
\n<\/em><\/h3>\n

Sur <\/em>translated to “on.”<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Le chat est sur<\/strong> la chaise. <\/em>(The cat is on the chair.)<\/p>\n

Colloquially, sur <\/em>can also be used to say \u201cin\u201d when referring to certain cities:<\/p>\n

Je suis sur<\/strong> Paris.<\/em> (I\u2019m in Paris.)<\/p>\n

This is technically grammatically incorrect, though, and should only be used when speaking in a familier <\/em>register<\/a>; it should not be written or used in standard French.<\/p>\n

Sous<\/em><\/h3>\n

Sous means “under.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Les taupes habitent sous<\/strong> la terre. <\/em>(Moles live underground.)<\/p>\n

Sous <\/em>is used in a lot of compound nouns in French, including several words where the English equivalent uses the Latin root \u201csub.\u201d For example:<\/p>\n