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French Prepositions Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

French prepositions by location, time, etc

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Time

à
Je vais a l'école à 8 heures.
I go to school at 8 'o clock.
specific time
en
Nous avons mangé en 40 minutes.
We ate in forty minutes.
length of time
dans
Nous partons dans une semaine.
We're leaving in a week.
future point in time

Time of day

le matin
Je fais du jogging le matin.
I jog in the morning.
time of day
l'aprè­s-midi
Nous avons une réunion l'aprè­s-midi.
We have a meeting in the afternoon.
time of day
le soir
Je sors souvent le soir.
I often go out in the evening.
time of day
la nuit
Je préfère lire la nuit.
I prefer to read at night.
time of day
à midi
à minuit
      
le/la/l' = in the / at [time of day]

Months and Years

en
En 1815, Napoléon fut vaincu.
In 1815, Napoleon was defeated.
specific year
en
Mon fils est né en septembre.
My son was born in September.
specific month
En is used with years and months. Never use dans.

Purpose

pour
Elle a acheté de la farine pour faire un gâteau.
She bought flour (in order) to make a cake.
to express purpose
 
Pour y aller, tu as besoin de prendre le bus.
To go there, you need to take the bus.
à fin de
Je prends des leçons afin d'apprendre le français.
I'm taking lessons (in order) to learn French.
more elegant expression of purpose
penser que
Nous pensons que c'est une bonne idée.
We think it's a good idea.
croire que
Elle croit que les anges existent.
She believes (that) angels exist.
When using verbs of opinions such as penser (to think) and croire (to believe) to say 'I believe that / I think that' in French, you always need to put que ('that') after them, whereas in English you can sometimes omit it.
  

Duration

pendant
    
indicates duration
durant
depuis
    
starting point is in the past
pour

Before and After

avant
après
devant
derrière

Holidays

à
À Noël, on mange toujours trop !
At Christmas, we always eat too much.
holiday in general
le jour de
Je t'ai vu le jour de Noël.
I saw you on Christmas Day.
on the very day of the holiday
While à is more general (i.e. at Christ­mas), le jour de insists a bit more on the very day (i.e. on Christmas Day).

As Aïd starts with a vowel, we use à l' or le jour de l', in order to ease the pronun­cia­tion.

Distance

à...de...
Je suis à 5 minutes de Paris.
I'm 5 minutes from Paris.
expressed a duration
à...de...
Le superm­arché est à 500 m de la poste.
The superm­arket is 500 m from the post office.
expressed as a physical distance
In French, you must always use à before the distance:

Note also that when locations are introduced by the definite articles le and les, de contracts into du and des.