Prepositions of place

A preposition describes where or when or how something is, in relation to something else. In English, the words in, on, at, to, with and after are prepositions.

Prepositions describing position

A dog in different places around a kennel. French text: dans, devant, sur, derrière, entre, sous, à côté de, à droite de, à gauche de

To describe where something is in relation to something else, use a preposition of position.

Here are some examples:

dans	in(side)
derrière	behind
devant	in front of
entre	between
sous	under
sur	on

dans

in(side)

derrière

behind

devant

in front of

entre

between

sous

under

sur

on

Le chat est sur la table. – The cat is on the table.
La souris est sous la table. – The mouse is under the table.

Some prepositions need to be used with de:

à côté de	next to
au bord de	at the side of
au-dessus de	above, over
au milieu de	in the middle of
en dehors de	outside (of)
en face de	opposite
près de	near

à côté de

next to

au bord de

at the side of

au-dessus de

above, over

au milieu de

in the middle of

en dehors de

outside (of)

en face de

opposite

près de

near

Prepositions with de often need to be followed with a . With , de + le become du. With all nouns de + les become des. Before a vowel or silent h, de becomes d’. For example:

La table est à côté du lit. – The table is next to the bed.
Le chat est au milieu des fleurs. – The cat is in the middle of the flowers.
La pharmacie est en face de l’hôtel de ville. – The pharmacy is opposite the town hall.

Translate the following sentences into French.

Question

I live near the church.

Question

The dog is under the table.

Question

My bed is between my wardrobe and my desk.

Question

The supermarket is opposite the sports centre.

French prepositionsPrepositions of place