French Prepositions

Prepositions introduce a complement. They are words or expressions used to indicate the relationship (time, space, manner, goal, cause, possession, etc.) that exists between persons and things. Simple prepositions consist of only one word, while prepositional phrases consist of two or more.

The most commonly used simple prepositions are:

à	to/into
après	after / according to
avant	before
avec	with
chez	at / by
compris	including
contre	against / in opposition to
dans	within / inside of
de	from, of
depuis	since
dès	since, from
devant	in front of, in advance of
durant	during
en	in
entre	between

hors	outside of
jusque	as far as, until
malgré	in spite of
outre	except, outside of
par	per, for
parmi	among
plein	full of
pour	for
près	near to
sans	without
sauf	except
selon	according to
sous	under
sur	on, upon
vers	against

The most commonly used prepositional phrases are:

à cause de	because of
à défaut de	lacking, in the absence of something
à force de	due to
à l'aide de	with the assistance of
à l'égard de	with respect to
à l'exception de	with the exception of
à l'insu de	unknown to
à moins de	unless
afin de	in order to
au-dessus de	under
au lieu de	in place of
au moyen de	by means of
au péril de	at the risk of
autour de	around
aux dépens de	at the expense of
dans le but de	with the purpose of
de façon à	so as to
de manière à	in such a way
de peur de	in fear of
en dépit de	in spite of
en plus de	more than
en raison de	for the reason that / the reason being that
en vue de	in view of the fact that
étant donné	in consideration of
faute de	for want of
grâce à	thanks to
quant à	as for