De vs en
- « Back to Q&A Forum
- « Previous questionNext question »

JoakimKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
De vs en
Are these competely interchangeable for specifying what something is made of or are there pronounciation rules that indicate which one is better for a particular word?
This question relates to:French lesson "Compound nouns formed with prepositions à, de, en"
Asked 2 years ago

AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Joakim !
I would say that "en" implies that this is the main (and often only) element the thing is made of, whereas "de" would imply that it's one of the elements composing the thing, but there must be more.
Colloquially, "en" is used more often than "de".
I hope that's helpful!
Bonnes Fêtes et à bientôt !

Joakim asked:View original
De vs en
Are these competely interchangeable for specifying what something is made of or are there pronounciation rules that indicate which one is better for a particular word?
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level >>