Can you please explain when 'de' is used before a number in French?
- Le nombre de décès a été de 54600. (Does it mean 'was at' or ' was about'?)- La population a augmenté l'année dernière de 3,46,000 personnes. (Does it mean 'increased to' or 'increased by' here?)
- Le prix est de 500 dollars.
And, is there a general rule about using "de" before numbers? Please explain?
Hi Ashpreet,
As Maarten says correctly 'de' is a preposition here, it is called 'vide' ( empty) as it makes no grammatical sense but it is always used before -
expressions de quantité ou de contenu
Bonne Continuation !
Aashpreet - where are these examples from ? Can you provide the context or lesson they are from ?
The ‘de’ in your examples is a preposition, not a partitive article, and the lesson you linked is not relevant. You can review the meanings of ‘de’ at the following link :
https://www.wordreference.com/fren/de
Hey Maarten , Thanks for pointing that it's a preposition here. Got confused because I always saw 'de' before numbers in French (and it meant different things in different examples like the few I have shared in my Question), and like -
"La hauteur de la Tour Eiffel est de 324 mètres."
I was actually trying to find a lesson which could explain this concept but couldn't find one...please share the kwiziq lesson link, if you find one.
Though Cécile has given a good explanation for this. Thank you Cécile.
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