de ou du?

LindaB1Kwiziq community member

de ou du?

Why do we have Office de Tourisme, amateur de vin, Miroir d'Eau, amateurs d'histoire, protégé de France ( why not de La France?)

but, Cité du Vin, de l'histoire du vin, Fontaine des 3 Grâces?


Asked 2 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Linda,

This is something that we are often asked so I'll go through the cases you mention :

1. Preposition de (without the definite article

The noun following "de" is used to qualify the noun preceding it, i.e. "what type of ..." is it

 

amateur de vin /d'histoire  ->what type of amateur

miroir d'eau  -> what type of mirror (here, made of the reflection created by the water from the pool

 

protégé de France  -> what type of "protégé"

(Just a note in the case of masculine countries you will use du, des so it would be,  protégé du Portugal, du Maroc, des Etats-Unis)

2. Preposition de definite article ---> du, de la, des, de l' 

refers to a specific person, object related to the previous noun

cité du vin -> here it's a city about wine

i.e. if you said "cité de vin", that would mean in French that the city was made of wine, a wine city.

La Fontaine des Trois Grâces -> Fountain of the Three Graces specifically

Office du/de Tourisme -> both are correct here, as it could be either a type of office, tourist office, or an office about tourism

So we've now added both options as correct. 

hope this helps!

RamonaA0Kwiziq community member
You mentioned in that  masculine countries  use du, de la, des so it would be,  protégé du Portugal, du Maroc, des Etats-Unis".
Why do you use de la?
CécileKwiziq team member

Hi Ramona,

Thank you for pointing this out, it has now been corrected!

de ou du?

Why do we have Office de Tourisme, amateur de vin, Miroir d'Eau, amateurs d'histoire, protégé de France ( why not de La France?)

but, Cité du Vin, de l'histoire du vin, Fontaine des 3 Grâces?


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