The prepositions DE and DU + Exercises

Prepositions DE and DU + Exercises

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We use DE and DU, to know when we can use them, we ask the question : what is the noun that follows ?

The preposition DE is used in the following cases :

Proper noun

Example :

L’ordinateur de Maxime. → Maxime's computer.

La voiture de Gilbert. → Gilbert's car.

We do not put an article in front of the names of anyone → L’ordinateur de le Maxime.

Female-singular noun that starts with a consonant

If the name is feminine-singular and begins with a consonant, DE becomes DE LA.

Example :

La maison de la femme. → La maison de femme. → The house of the woman.

Le toit de la maison. → Le toit de maison. →The roof of the house.

A generality

Example :

Le professeur de géographie. → Le professeur de la géographie. → The geography teacher.

biologie and géographie are global things, seen as a whole.

Une leçon de vie. → Une leçon de la vie. → A life lesson.

Life in general, seen as a whole.

The preposition DU is used in the following cases :

Note : DU can also be a partitive article. Example: Je veux du lait. → I want some milk. We do not talk about it in this article!

A singular masculine noun that begins with a consonant

DU = DE + LE

Example :

L’ordinateur du garçon. → L’ordinateur de le garçon. → The boy's computer.

Je reviens du café. → Je reviens de le café. → I'm coming back from the bar.

Here café means the place where you drink coffee.

Singular, masculine or feminine noun that begins with a vowel

We use DE L’

Example :

Le sac de l’étudiant. → The bag of the student.

Le sac de l’étudiante. → The bag of the student.

When the designated thing is a generality and it begins with a vowel

We use D’

Example :

Le professeur d’orthographe. → The spelling teacher.

This is the spelling in general.

Le professeur d’informatique. → The computer teacher.

It's computer science in general.

Masculine or feminine noun

We use DES

Example :

L’ordinateur des garçons. → The boys computer.

Les oreilles des éléphants. → The ears of elephants.

Exercices

1 - La maison………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Catherine.
Catherine's house.

2 - Le professeur……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………biologie.
The professor of biology.

3 - Les oreilles…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….chien.
The dog's ears.

4 - Ce midi à la cantine, il y avait……………………………………………………………………………….poisson au menu.
This lunch in the canteen, there was fish on the menu.

5 - Ce joueur a marqué un très beau but……………………………………………………………………………………….tête.
This player scored a beautiful goal of the head.

6 - Quand tu auras fini la vaisselle, tu pourras faire……………………………………………………………………..vélo.
When you finish the dishes, you can ride a bike.

7 - Cette année nous avons eu une belle récolte…………………………………………………………………………….blé.
This year we had a nice harvest of wheat.

8 - Les gens viennent de loin pour participer à la fête………………………………………………………..………village.
People come from far away to participate in the village festival.

9 - Il y a……………………………………………………………………………………………lait dans la recette pour le gâteau.
There is milk in the recipe for the cake.

10 - Les sièges…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….voiture.
The seats of the car.

Réponses

1 - de

2 - de

3 - du

4 - du

5 - de la

6 - du

7 - de

8 - du

9 - du

10 - de la

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Thomas Ricomard