Use of "à" again to mean "with"

Question

Can someone explain the use of "à" in these two sentences:

Elle se trouva confrontée aux limites de l'époque (why is it used to mean "with" in this sentence?)

Mais cette femme à la
forte personnalité (also meaning with?)

Accepted Answer

Hi Sean,
unfortunately there is not a 1:1 correspondence between English and French prepositions. Some verbs use certain prepositions in French and others in English; confronter is such an example. Confronté à simply means confronted by, faced with.

Answer

Thank you for the explanation. It makes sense. Confronté works together with à. I realize now that à works together with passer in the same way - "J'ai passé beaucoup de temps à travailler" is "I spent a lot of time working."

It is still hard to understand when à is used to express composition, purpose, use, manner, style: un enfant aux yeux bleus / fait à la main / au bon caractère.

Answer

I get a bit of satisfaction knowing that English is just as twisted with its use of prepositions when viewed from another language. :)