[Originally posted on 12/27/18 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by Sitesurf]
Temporal Prepositions
Choosing a preposition for time depends on the situation, but multiple choices may be appropriate.
Duration
Pendant and durant are interchangeable and mean “during” or “for”. These are versatile and can be used for most expressions of duration.
- Pendant l’été, il fait chaud. — During the summer, it is hot.
- Je veux dormir pendant une semaine ! — I want to sleep for a week!
- Elles peuvent rester durant une journée. — They can stay for a day.
- Chaque matin, je courais pendant une heure. — Every morning, I ran for an hour.
- Elle a été médecin durant trente ans. — She was a doctor for thirty years.
Depuis (“since” or “for”) can be used for things that are still happening, and it’s usually followed by a start date or a duration. It’s tricky because a French present-tense verb with depuis often translates to an English present perfect verb.
- Il pleut depuis hier. — It has been raining since yesterday.
- Je te connais depuis deux ans. — I have known you for two years.
En (“in”) indicates the length of time an action requires for completion and can be used with any tense. You can also think of it as “within”.
- Je peux le finir en deux heures. — I can finish it in (within) two hours.
- Elle va lire le livre en une heure. — She is going to read the book in (within) an hour.
Pour (“for”) is the most limited choice and is used with some verbs like être, aller or partir for future events.
- Il va être en vacances pour une semaine. – He will be on vacation for a week.
- Je reste chez moi pour la nuit. — I am staying home for the night.
- Mes enfants sont partis pour deux jours. — My children left for two days.
References
Use à to pinpoint exactly what time of day an event begins or to give the endpoint of a time range in conjunction with de.
- Le repas commence à midi. — The meal begins at noon.
- La boutique est ouverte de 8h00 à 17h00. — The boutique is open from 8 to 5.
En can also indicate that an action took place in a particular month, season, or year. The exception is spring, which requires au.
- Je vais à Paris en avril. — I am going to Paris in April.
- Je commence à bronzer en douceur en été. — I begin to gently sunbathe in summer.
- Il va toujours chez lui au printemps. — He always goes home in spring.
Dans also means “in”, but it gives the amount of time before an action will take place.
- Elle va revenir dans 15 minutes. — She is going to return in 15 minutes.
- Je vais t’appeler dans une demi-heure. — I’m going to call you in half an hour.
Puzzling Prepositions
Chez can be combined with a person (pronoun or noun) to refer to someone’s home or workplace.
- Je vais chez le dentiste. — I am going to the dentist’s.
- Elle est chez Kristy. — She’s at Kristy’s house.
Note: You can say “je suis chez le boulanger” (at the baker’s- person), but not chez la boulangerie (the bakery- place). For that, you’d say “je suis à la boulangerie”.
Entre means “between”, both literally and figuratively.
- Il est entre deux fougères. — He is between two ferns.
- Je te le dis, mais c’est entre nous. — I can tell you, but it’s between us.
Parmi means “among” and indicates that something is part of a larger group of assorted people, animals, or things.
- Des lions sont parmi les animaux du zoo. — Lions are among the zoo animals.
- Le chat dort parmi les chiens. — The cat sleeps among the dogs.
However, if the larger group is uniform in some specific way, entre can also mean “among”.
- Ici, nous sommes entre femmes. — Here, we are among women.
- Nous pouvons parler librement entre collègues. — We can speak freely among colleagues.
There are some situations where both entre and parmi are acceptable.
- Il choisit entre/parmi les options. — He chooses between the options.
Devant and avant both mean “before”, but devant is spatial while avant is temporal.
- Je suis devant vous. — I stand before you.
- Il mange avant nous. — He eats before us.
Peu
Using the word peu (“few”/”little”) can be surprisingly complicated. By itself, peu is usually an adverb that diminishes what it modifies and is generally translated using “not very/much/well”.
- Elle parle peu. — She doesn’t talk much.
- Il est peu probable. — It is not very likely.
- Je vous connais peu. — I don’t know you well.
- Ce phénomène est peu fréquent. – This phenomenon is infrequent.
- peu après — not long after
Appending de creates a preposition of quantity that modifies nouns.
- Peu de femmes disent ça. — Few women say that.
- Peu d’eau sur la Terre est potable. — Little of the water on Earth is drinkable.
However, peu can also be a noun, especially when preceded by an article.
- Elle parle un peu de français. — She speaks a bit of French.
- Tu veux manger un peu de fraises ? — Do you want to eat a few strawberries?
- Oui, j’en veux un peu. — Yes, I want a few. (Or “a little”.)
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Selected comments on original post
From this forum – https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/188677
Quoting from the Tips & Notes for this lesson:
Devant and avant both mean “before”, but devant is spatial while avant is temporal.
If avant can be spatial also, this probably needs to be amended in the notes, if possible. Merci!
A mod replied:
Both spatial and temporal references are accepted (e.g., in front of). You can report the suggestion directly at the bottom of the Tips & Notes page.
Sitesurf [contributor]
The sentence there was “Il est avant sa femme”, which translated to “He is before his wife”.
This is a peripheral use of “avant” and the true meaning of this sentence is that he arrived before her, and consequently he is now standing in front of her in the queue, or, figuratively, he has a higher level of priority in a list.
Both situations actually relate to time (he will be served before her) and space (in the queue/list), yet in 99% of cases, “avant” is and remains temporal.
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