Speed Up Your French: Strategies to avoid common errors (2016)

Prepositions used in expressions of manner

1 de + façon / manière to translate ‘in a certain way’

Note that in French, de is used with façon and manière where in English we would say ‘in a certain way’, e.g.

Il parle d’une façon désagréable.

(He speaks in an unpleasant way.)

You need therefore to use la façon / manière dont to translate ‘the way that’ or ‘the way in which’, e.g.

La façon / manière dont il parle me déplaît.

(I don’t like the way that / in which he talks.)

Note the expression: d’une manière ou d’une autre (in one way or another).

2 Use of de where English would often use ‘in’ or ‘with’

With movement, de is often used in French where in English we would say ‘in’ or ‘with’, e.g.

Il a avalé le whisky d’un trait.

(He swallowed the whisky in one gulp.)

Il a écarté les branches de son bras.

(He moved the branches aside with his arm.)

3 Ways of travelling

À is the most common preposition used for natural movements, e.g.

à pied (on foot)

à quatre pattes (on all fours)

au pas (at a crawl)

En is most commonly used for travel by vehicle, e.g.

en voiture (by car)

en bus (by bus)

en train (by train)

However, in the last case, par le train is also common.

À may be used as an alternative to en for bikes and motorbikes, which you sit astride, so just as you say à cheval (on horseback), you can say: à vélo and à moto, as an alternative to en vélo and en moto, respectively.