Search results for query: à before infinitive

Hi everyone! I have a question about the phrase 'à deux.' Is there a general translation of this phrase? Sort of a rule of thumb? On the page for 'deux,' 'à deux' is translated as 'a deux.' Which doesn't really help. I actually looked up deux in an English dictionary just in case, but...

I know this means ready-to-wear. But this French phrase brings up something that has always confused me and I can't seem to find any information about online. And that is: à + infinitives. Why is it prêt-à-porter instead of prêt-porter? Do you say J'aime à danser or J'aime danser? How do you...

Donnez-moi quelque chose à boire. I came across the sentence above and am a bit confused. I was taught that when you can insert the words "in order to" before the infinitive, French is always preceded by "pour". To me the above sentence is talking about being given something "in order to"...

Bonsoir à tous ! Just a quick question to ask if the reflexive pronoun is needed when using avoir besoin de before pronominal verbs in the infinitive ? For example, would one say: "J'ai besoin de me raser chaque matin" or "J'ai besoin de raser chaque matin" My instinct tells me that it's...

Yes, I missed that. enseigner requires à before the personal object and before the infinitive.

Bonsoir, Both à and de are acceptable. Nevertheless, before a noun, we use de and before an infinitive we use de or à. So, both La capacité à être assertif and La capacité d'être assertif est importante are OK.

After - Cela peut mener même à... You have an infinitive with a short adverb, so I 'm wondering if it can even go before the infinitive. After "cela" you have made it mean "that itself."

Hello, You can say "Les traditions contribuent à l'économie et à créer des emplois" with "à" before the verb in the infinitive. I agree with Gérard "Les traditions contribuent à l'économie et à la création d'emplois" is better

With "avoir", as far as I can see, it'll always be "à" before the infinitive. You don't say "j'ai quelque chose de faire".

Merci! On a side note, when do you put "à" before an infinitive like that, Donaldos? How do you know when to include it?

I hope this hasn't been discussed before, I tried looking for the answer before making this thread. I was just wondering when expressing an infinitive: ex.: I want to go somewhere. I asked him to leave. etc. when should you say "à + infinitive" or "de + infinitive". And when should you simply...

Hi The focus is the use of verbs which take 'à' before an infinitive. Is my example wrong, or could you say it like that? Thanks Pitstop

I'm afraid the question "How do you know when and when not to use à before an infinitive when trying to say "to [verb]"?" is too generic and cannot be addressed in this thread. Please focus on prêt à + infinitive. If you would like to discuss X choses à faire, please open a new thread. Maître...

I wonder if there might be some suggestions for learning the more common French words and expressions, and knowing whether to use with them à or de (or neither) before an infinitive. This is an area where, in writing, I have to spend huge amounts of time figuring out what is preferred. I know...

Alors, Pieanne, 'J'ai beaucoup de lettres à écrire'. 'Je n'ai rien à faire.' sont OK? Merci, La Reine V

I just went through 15 different posts on using the de/à + infinitive, but to no avail. I'm sure that I'm beating a dead horse right now, however I understand that the use of prepositions is dependent on what happens before the infinitive, and in general, there is a list of verbs + prep (essayer...

I have a doubt regarding the rules of using prepositions before infinitive verbs. For example, in the sentence, 'Je pense de prendre les cours,' would 'de' be the correct preposition or would 'à?' Are there any general rules on when to use them before infinitives?

Thanks. So it normally is before the infinitive when two verbs are used, but in the Passe Compose it is before the auxillary. So what happened with j'ai à y gagné, is it because the "à" alters the construction? And, is it only "à" that does this specially or is it any two pronouns...

Bonjour, The verb "rêver" always takes "de" before an infinitive: Je rêve d'aller en France, right? But before a noun, is it Je rêve d'un voyage en France. Je rêve à un voyage en France? If both prepositions are possible, what is the difference in meaning? Merci!

Bonjour, In fact, you may find the adverb either before an infinitve or after. It depends on the kind of adverbs. Some like quality adverbs (bien, mieux, moins, mal...) are most of the time before the infinitive. Il faut bien écouter le professeur pour mieux comprendre. You could say Il faut...

I'm afraid there is no simple answer to that question and there is definitely no rule that covers all the various cases... These two links might be of interest to you : infinitive preposition+infinitive

Starcreator, You're right. The topic was to get the rules for use of à or de (or nothing) after a verb or introductory phrase, and before an infinitive. If you can provide help there, please do. It was pointed out that pouvour, vouloir, devoir, and aller (in cases involving the near...

Bonjour, I am confused about how the proposition 'de' is used with Finir. My book says that 'de' must be used before an infinitive. what does that mean? The example given is "En général, je finis d'étudier à 8h 30." I look forward to your comments.

I'm having a really hard time trying to memorize which verbs take "à" when used before an infinitive and which verbs take "de". Is there any way to figure out which preposition a verb takes using logic or do I just have to memorize long lists?

merci lucas-sp et CapnPrep. I intended to start a new thread for my question. I do not know that the negation goes before the infinitive and after the conjugated form at that time). However, I don't know why, my threads goes here and this thread is just relevant to my question:) Now, thanks...

Is the "to" in phrases like that in English part of the infinitive anyway? As a native speaker I can't tell for myself. "To" seems to be a sense more attached to the "want" than the following verb. In French we can tell because "à" sometimes follows the verb, even before the infinitive. It...

geve, Thanks you for the addition. I've added "savoir" (when it means "to be able to") to my list to be memorized of verbs preceding an infinitive, and not needing "à" or "de." Your list is short ;) which makes it manageable to learn. Three cheers for brevity! On the verbs needing...

That's better. It's not correct yet. - You should use a verb in the infinitive form before "à Rome" (don't forget the accent on the a!!) - Just as I said, "temps" mustn't be used here. The verb alone is enough. - Don't forget the article before "voyages" - you have to find a better expression...

i'm probably gonna make myself look stupid (again) I think the first one is incorrect as you have an infinitive after another verb For the following 2 examples ,, if certain appears before impossible you use à If certain appears after impossible you use the prepostion 'de' Therefore the second...

I think that me and te go at the very end change to moi and toi when they follow a direct object pronoun, "donnez-le-moi, for example. However if "en" is involved, we end up with donnez-m'en and va-t'en. Also, if we have constructions such as faire + infinitive, laisser + infinitive or...

Are you asking about negation with infinitives? Because there isn't really a special case here. In the non-conjugated form, the negation goes before the infinitive: ne pas avoir de temps ne rien comprendre à ce point de vue etc. In conjugated forms, then the negating adverbs go around the...

Bonjour, I think that in this case, you may want to say "Si, et j'apprends aussi à l'écrire". As far as I know, y can't be used in this context, but if you had a sentence in which you wanted to use the verb apprendre à + infinitive and a verb which could take y, the y would immediately...

perhaps the question would be clear if we asked the natives if "attendre avec impatience" takes a preposition before an infinitive. The only case in the thread adds a "de" but without specifying particularly that it must take it. J'attends avec impatience voir le film J'attends avec...

Hello KellyB, Sorry, no examples for mechanisms, the sentence is an article from International Tropical Timber Agreement; The flle point: g) Développer et contribuer à mécanismes visant à apporter des ressources financières nouvelles et additionnelles et des compétences techniques dont il est...

de faire is the correct form in both exemples. But I couldn't say whether there is a rule. 'rêver de' -> mon rêve est de... 'besoin de' -> les besoins sont de 'avoir pour objectif de' -> mon objectif est de... 'dans le but de' -> le but est de Honestly I never examined the question before :o...

The de is okay but the à is not linked to reconnaissance, but rather to tendant, which has the à before an infinitive verb eg. j'ai tendance à bavarder:)

1. Penser needs a direct object. So, you cannot put preposition before the object (which is "avoir bien joué", in this case) 2. "avoir joué" is the past infinitive of "jouer". So, it conveys the idea of a past action. If you do not want to reflect this idea, you will say : Je ne pense pas bien...

The pronoun (lui) will generally go right before the first conjugated verb unless there is an infinitive, in which case it goes before the infinitive. So your second phrase is correct. M.H. :)

Sorry my mistake! I was thinking of verbs followed by "de" or "à" before an infinitive such as: conseiller de and aider à. With these verbs, it is not simply a question of just knowing verbs take "de" and which ones take "à"?

You're right, it is broad. And I just looked it up again and found "Many nouns and adjectives are followed by de before an infinitive" So here's a question that is specifically about prêt-à-porter. Why is it prêt-à-porter instead of prêt de porter? And if it's just something that I have to...

The full sentence is: "Forcé de/Etant forcé de partager un espace confiné avec des personnes à qui on n’a pas été présenté était une activité plein de risques."

Well, often, but not always, e.g.: Il a fini par terminer ce puzzle. Ce roman, je l'ai fini pour faire plaisir à mon frère.

GDGB, in every reputable French Grammar book, you'll find a list of expressions and verbs which either require à, de or nothing before an infinitive. Some books try to categorise it all by their own confusing rules of some sort, but your best bet is to just learn them as particular to each verb...

I cannot for the life of me figure out what this exactly means. In its full context: "Quand il entendait pleurer durant la nuit, il lui arrivait de monter la chandelle à la main à l'ètage et, agenouillé entre ses deux filles, de chanter... " I am also curious as to why there is a "de" in...

Both are correct, but you should stick with the first one, as lucas-sp indicated. Putting rien after the infinitive is possible in literary French, or if rien is followed by a complement (which may be the case in your example), but a non-native speaker who uses this order will probably just be...

Thank you for your support litchi, I'm finding it really useful! "Le voyage à Rome prend trois heures en l'avion, mais e'tait agréable parce que j'adore le voyages en avion" I hope you don't mind helping me, I can see you are putting a lot of time into this :) I do not understand what you...

Bonjour tout le monde, I always have difficulty with the French equivalent of "to help someone with something." I have said in the past "J'aide ma fille avec ses devoirs" but a French friend told me that it is an anglicisme. He said aider must be followed by à + an infinitive. Is there a...

What gets me is when the "de" and "à" are used before an infinitive. Here are two phrases, we will examine each one individually - 1) Il est impossible de lire ce gros livre en une heure. (It is impossible to read this thick book in one hour) My book says that when the thing that is...

A bit of a tricky one. Most people's reaction would, I think, be to describe à as a preposition. The snag with that is that if you go googling for a definition of "preposition" you will be told that it is a word which governs a noun to show its relationship to other words in the sentence. The...

Now that's a good question - on a ship: "veille" means "watch" "being on watch" - in the army: "on standby" means "se tenir prêt" Ex: "standby, guys !" would be the order an officer would give to his men before attacking, or pending further orders "tenez-vous prêts" - "veille" can also refer to...