Tricky Prepositions

Use à to indicate direction, time, manner, or attachment, and to introduce an indirect object with a thing or person. It often appears before a noun where you want to specify a place, time, or purpose.

De expresses origin, possession, material, cause, or contents, and it introduces complements or partitives. It also appears after certain verbs and adjectives when linking to an infinitive or noun.

En can indicate time within which something happens, means or material, and location when replacing de + noun; it also turns a phrase into a pronoun to avoid repetition. Use en for months, for substances, and for quantities when appropriate.

Dans specifies a location inside something or a point in time relative to the future, and it is more concrete than en when you want to highlight physical containment or a delay before an event. Use dans for placing an object inside a container or for saying "in" some minutes/hours.

Pour expresses purpose, intended recipient, duration, or cause, and it introduces an action's goal or benefit. Use pour when linking an action to its reason, when indicating how long something is meant to last, or when designating someone as the beneficiary.

Par marks cause, means, distribution, or passage through, and it is used in passive constructions to indicate the agent. Use par for channels (like mail or way), for reasons, and when something is done "per" unit or "by" someone in a neutral sense.

Chez denotes someone's home, professional place, or establishment where a person is welcomed or where an activity occurs; it can also refer to a group or brand. Use chez to mean "at the place of" a person or business, and not for general locations.

Vers indicates an approximate direction or time, and it suggests movement or a point near rather than exact. Use vers when you want to be imprecise about arrival, departure, or location, as in "around" or "towards" a certain hour or place.

En face de means directly opposite and is used to describe spatial relationships between two places or things. It requires a noun after it and emphasizes that one object faces another across a street, room, or area.

Au lieu de expresses substitution or an alternative and is followed by a noun, pronoun, or infinitive; it highlights that one thing is done in place of another. Use au lieu de to signal a deliberate replacement or to regret that something was not done.

Prepositions like à, de, en, dans, pour, par, chez, vers, en face de, and au lieu de each have nuances that affect meaning and naturalness; paying attention to context and whether the preposition introduces a noun, an infinitive, or a pronoun helps you choose the right one. Practice replacing prepositional phrases with pronouns like en when possible, and notice signal words that call for one preposition rather than another.