Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
"in" in french language meaning?
I know this word has lots of correspong french words. I just want to know them if you know and which one used at which case.
thanks
1 Answer
- LaurenceLv 77 years ago
(1) In French as in all the Romance languages, position versus motion is shown by the verb, not the preposition, so that the word for "in" also means "into" as the word for "at" also means "to": "Je suis à la porte", "Je vais â la porte."
(2) The word for "in" in Old French was "en". Unfortunately "en le" was pronounced so like "au" (meaning "â le") that the two got confused, resulting in the crazy rule that "in(to)" is "au" before a masculine country (au Brésil, au Japon, au Portugal, aux Ètats Unis, aux Pays Bas, au Pays de Galles) but "en" before a feminine country (en Grande Bretagne, en Afrique, en France, en Provence, en Suisse...),
Otherwise "en" mostly remained in use where there was no following article: "en deshabille", "en cas", "en péril", "en ville", "en voiture", parituclary with the gerund: en parlant, en fuyant..
(2) Modern French mostly avoids the problem by using "dans" (within).