Verbs and prepositions

Hey French learners! Today, a quick note on how to use preposition after certain intransitive verbs.

First as a reminder: what is an intransitive verb? Well, it’s a verb that has no object.

So you might wonder (because you might have forgotten your grammar courses): what is a transitive verb? Simply a verb that has an object. Example with the 1st group verb manger (to eat):

Je mange du poisson.

I eat some fish.

The (grammatical object) is the fish, as the fish is being eaten. Putting simply, the action is directly made on the object.

Now, here is an example of intransitive verb: voler (to fly, but can mean to steal, which is transitive):

Je vole dans le ciel.

I fly in the sky.

You obviously can fly in the sky if you are in a plane or if you have wings. But you cannot fly the sky. You do not fly anything. It is a non sense, for sure.

Well, in French, there are intransitive verbs which, once combined with other verbs, needs to have a preposition in between to be correct French.

For instance, many foreigners want to translate this sentence into French:

I continue to speak.

Here, you can see that there is a preposition (to) between continue and speak.

Some foreigners who are not aware of preposition and comes from foreign languages, like Turkish or Japanese, may say this:

Je continue parler (which is wrong).

Here we use both verbs continuer (to continue) and parler (to speak) from the 1st group.

The verb continuer needs to be followed by the preposition à when you mean that you continue to do something / you keep doing something.

Examples :

Je continue à parler. (O.K.)

I continue to speak.

Or:

Tu continues à manger du pain.

You keep eating bread.

Etc.

Now that you have understood this simple rule, here is a list of verbs followed by the prepositions that you should use:

  • aider (to help) : aider à + infinitive verb.
  • arrêter (to stop) : arrêter de + infinitive verb.
  • décider (to decide) : décider de + infinitive verb.
  • essayer (to try) : essayer de + infinitive verb.
  • s’intéresser (to be interested in) : s’intéresser à + infinitive verb.
  • penser (to think about) : penser à + infinitive verb.

Examples:

Aidez-moi à apprendre le français.

Help me learn French.

J’arrête de manger de la viande.

I stop eating meat.

J’essaie de trouver mes clefs.

I try finding my keys.

Je décide d’apprendre le français.

I decide to learn French.

Je m’intéresse aux sciences.

I am interested in sciences.

Je pense à apprendre la musique.

I think about learning music.

That’s it, for the moment! The above list could be expanded if I meet foreigners making mistakes with some other verbs. Please note that you will mostly be understood by native speakers whether you do mistakes or not, so this is not a big point regarding your goals. But if you want to speak proper French, then this note might be a relevant option! ;)

Bon courage !