Voted Best Answer
Aug 16, 2020 - 01:22 PM
Hi teresaayala,
You're right that "de" can be quite tricky in French because it has many many uses:
- as you mentioned, it has to be used after some verbs like essayer or finir, but it's not the case here
- it can mean "of": le restaurant de l'hôtel = The restaurant OF the hotel, but it's not the case here
- it can also mean "from", as in: Je suis de Paris = I am from Paris. That's the case here after "conduire":
Conduire D'un village À l'autre = To drive FROM one village TO the other.
De ... à = From ... to
- and it is also used after expressions like "L'idée est DE" +verb = The idea is TO +verb
You generally have to use "de" in such expressions when they precede an infinitive verb, for example:
L'important est de, le problème est de, Le mieux c'est de + verb...
There are many other uses, like the partitive as in "de l'eau" for example. With these you already know the most common ones :)
You're right that "de" can be quite tricky in French because it has many many uses:
- as you mentioned, it has to be used after some verbs like essayer or finir, but it's not the case here
- it can mean "of": le restaurant de l'hôtel = The restaurant OF the hotel, but it's not the case here
- it can also mean "from", as in: Je suis de Paris = I am from Paris. That's the case here after "conduire":
Conduire D'un village À l'autre = To drive FROM one village TO the other.
De ... à = From ... to
- and it is also used after expressions like "L'idée est DE" +verb = The idea is TO +verb
You generally have to use "de" in such expressions when they precede an infinitive verb, for example:
L'important est de, le problème est de, Le mieux c'est de + verb...
There are many other uses, like the partitive as in "de l'eau" for example. With these you already know the most common ones :)
