FR: aimé de ses étudiants / couvert de neige

A

abc

Senior Member
Vietnam, Vietnamese
Hello!

This part is for a classmate of mine, who's a native French speaker but left France when she was pretty young. Our French grammar professor gave us these sentences:

1. Le prof était aimé de ses étudiants.
2. Le village sera couvert de neige.

My friend told me that she had never known/heard that de was used in this way. She asked me to find out more information for her on this type of construction. I thought WR would be a great place for this, so here I am.:) Both of us would be very grateful for your help!

Many thanks!!!

:)
 
    • 1. Le prof était aimé de ses étudiants.
    The teacher was loved by his students.

    2. Le village sera couvert de neige.
    The village will be covered with snow.

    As you can see, both "aimer" and "couvert" use the preposition "de" but are translated differently; in the first, it's "by"; in the second, "with."

    Bon courage! :)
     
    Merci bien, la grive solitaire!:)

    My friend and I still have a couple of questions about de. Why can't we use par in the first sentence to replace de, and can we use avec to replace de in the second sentence? Why is de used in these contexts instead of the other two prepositions?

    Many thanks in advance!:)


    la grive solitaire said:
    1. Le prof était aimé de ses étudiants.
    The teacher was loved by his students.

    2. Le village sera couvert de neige.
    The village will be covered with snow.

    As you can see, both "aimer" and "couvert" use the preposition "de" but are translated differently; in the first, it's "by"; in the second, "with."

    Bon courage! :)
    Click to expand...
     
    abc said:
    Merci bien, la grive solitaire!:)

    My friend and I still have a couple of questions about de. Why can't we use par in the first sentence to replace de, and can we use avec to replace de in the second sentence? Why is de used in these contexts instead of the other two prepositions?

    Many thanks in advance!:)
    Click to expand...

    "aimé de" is a relic of a time when the word "de" was a lot more "active" than it is today (it could mean "by" in the same way "par" does today). I think that in most areas this has been replaced by "par" but "de" is still used with emotions. You could view "aimé de" as a set phrase if you like.

    "avec" is not used as much in French as "with" is in English (in situations other than when it means "accompanied by"), and I think it is quite normal to use "de" in such situations. I don't think "avec" would sound right - but we'd need a native speaker to confirm.
     
    timpeac said:
    "aimé de" is a relic of a time when the word "de" was a lot more "active" than it is today (it could mean "by" in the same way "par" does today). I think that in most areas this has been replaced by "par" but "de" is still used with emotions. You could view "aimé de" as a set phrase if you like.

    "avec" is not used as much in French as "with" is in English (in situations other than when it means "accompanied by"), and I think it is quite normal to use "de" in such situations. I don't think "avec" would sound right - but we'd need a native speaker to confirm.
    Click to expand...

    You're right, we wouldn't say that. "avec" would have value of mean, as if you said : "il a été recouvert avec de la neige", which means someone has covered him with snow. I'm not sure about that, but when "avec" doesn't mean "accompanied by", then it refers to somebody being active.
     
    Ze Zeum said:
    You're right, we wouldn't say that. "avec" would have value of mean, as if you said : "il a été recouvert avec de la neige", which means someone has covered him with snow. I'm not sure about that, but when "avec" doesn't mean "accompanied by", then it refers to somebody being active.
    Click to expand...

    Oh, that's interesting. Thanks for the clarification.
     
    Thank you Tim, LV4, and Z Z!!!

    I'm still confused about de, and the passive voice in French is kind the strange. My brain is processing the info very slowly.:(

    But now I have another question.

    How would you translate inner history and outer history in French? Is it be something like l'histoire intérieure et l'histoire externe de [la langue] Français? I'm doing a little paper on the evolution of Québecois French and I would just like to be sure that the translation is correct.:)

    Many thanks again!:)
     
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