Achievingequivalenceatthelevelofgrammar:acontrastive studyoftheuseofprepositionsinEnglishandFrench By Pierre Guernier

Introduction
How many English students of the French language have been experiencing difficulties in expressing the accurate prepositions to refer to the names of cities, regions and countries? What prepositions are to be used to express when they are in or going to these locations? Prepositions link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence and usually indicate the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence. The study of simple prepositions is vast. The contrastive analysis of those related to geographical places in English and in French is mostly interesting. French prepositions imply historical and cultural components that are not present in English. Moreover, for non-French proper nouns of places, the francization 1 of many proper nouns into the French language has been implemented in order to follow the existing rules of prepositions in French. This is rendered even harder for non-French native speakers when prompted to use them accurately (Vaguer, 2006). This paper will firstly present a contrastive study on English and French prepositions related to geographical places through the analysis of five different cases. The second part of this essay will focus on finding rules of equivalence between the different cases previously discussed.

1. A contrastive study
1.1 Method used for the comparison of English and French prepositions
In this chapter, a contrastive study introducing two key quotes will be built by showing the diverse differences occurring between English and French simple prepositions related to
1

ThewordFrancizationmeanstheactionofmakingsomethingFrench.Theequivalentverbistofrancize (fromtheShorterOxfordEnglishDictionary,sixthedition)

geographical place names. The method used in comparing the two languages will be set in the context of the two following sentences: Sentence 1: English: French: Sentence 2: English: French: [Monument/City] is in [geographical place name]. [Monument/City] est {preposition} [geographical place name]. Im going to [geographical place name]. Je vais {preposition} [geographical place name].

These two quotes will be used as examples throughout this essay, so as to demonstrate the similarities and differences between the two languages.

1.2 Similarities in the use of prepositions

The similarities between French and English appear in the function and the place of the preposition in the sentence. As indicated by Worth-Stylianou (1994), the functions of prepositions are very similar in French and English, as they stand before a noun or pronoun, and express position, direction, etc.

1.3 Differences in the use of prepositions

Although the chosen sentences for this topic appear to be quite simple in English, their translation into French reveals an interesting case of differentiation in the choice of prepositions to be used. The research led by Japkowicz and Wiebe (1991, p. 122) on finding a system for translating locative prepositions from English to French originated from the observation that:
Even between two closely related languages such as English and French, locative prepositions of even simple sentences do not seem to be translated from one language to the other in a clearly systematic and coherent way.

This present research revealed nine equivalent French prepositions in relation to geographical places versus the two English prepositions in and to. The variety of prepositions in French employed in this context depends on a notion that is not present in English: the gender and the number of the proper noun that follows. As mentioned by Nachtmann (1981), the usage of prepositions with the names of countries, provinces and cities in French is very confusing to English students who are having difficulty mastering the basic rules for prepositions. For Calvez (2005, p. 177), the use of prepositions with proper names of places depends on whether those names are masculine or feminine. But this rule does not account alone for the differences with English. Calvez adds that other elements must be considered, such as whether the name begins with a consonant or a vowel, whether it is well known or not, whether the place is a country, a city, an island, etc. When the English language uses two prepositions (in and to) with geographical places, in French, depending on the kind of geographical place mentioned, there are nine of them (au, aux, en, , dans le, dans l , dans la, la, and dans les). Arguably, is the most important preposition in French: it can denote location (in) and destination (to) (French News, 2008). 1

Case 1: prepositions in relations to cities

Prepositions in relations to cities account for 4 different cases in French and 2 in English, with the use of prepositions , au, la and en in French and to and in in English (Offord, p. 281).

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French
JevaisParis. LaTourEiffelestParis.

English
ImgoingtoParis. TheEiffelTowerisinParis. ImgoingtoLeHavre. TheharbourisinLeHavre. ImgoingtoNewOrleans. TheFrenchQuarterisinNewOrleans. ImgoingtoAvignon. ThePalaceofthePopesisinAvignon.

JevaisauHavre. LeportestauHavre.

JevaislaNouvelleOrlans. LeVieuxCarrestlaNouvelleOrlans.

JevaisenAvignon. LePalaisdesPapesestenAvignon.

Case 2: prepositions in relations to continents

Prepositions in relations to continents appear to be quite straightforward in French because all French names of continents are feminine (Nachtmann, 1981). French uses en and English alternately employs to and in.

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French
JevaisenEurope. BruxellesestenEurope.

English
ImgoingtoEurope. BrusselsisinEurope.

Case 3: prepositions in relations to countries

Countries are preceded with 4 different prepositions in French: en, au, aux and (Lang and Perez, 1996, p.193). A particular case concerns islands, especially autonomous or independent islands, to which lIle (the island) is added to the preposition . It is an ambiguous case, as Taiwan does not need the word le in front of it. Islands such as Taiwan or Java are part of the New World which has rarely been francizised, as opposed to European places. In English, as for cities and continents, the two prepositions to and in are used (French News, 2008).

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French
JevaisenFrance. ParisestenFrance.

English
ImgoingtoFrance. ParisisinFrance. ImgoingtoCanada. MontrealisinCanada. ImgoingtoIran. 2

JevaisauCanada. MontralestauCanada.

JevaisenIran.

ThranestenIran. 9 JevaisauxPaysBas. AmsterdamestauxPaysBas. 10 JevaisTawan. TaipehestTaiwan. 11 JevaislIleMaurice. PortLouisestlIleMaurice

TehranisinIran. ImgoingtotheNetherlands. AmsterdamisintheNetherlands. ImgoingtoTaiwan. TaipeiisinTaiwan. ImgoingtoMauritius. PortLouisisinMauritius.

Case 4: prepositions in relation to regions and provinces

Regions, especially those in Europe and those in the world where French influence have been known usually follow the rule stated in case number 3 for countries. However, a major difference occurs when dealing with regions or provinces whose gender is masculine. The French preposition en used for masculine countries is replaced by dans le (WorthStylianou, 1994, p. 140). It is therefore interesting to observe the upgrading effect for geographical places such as Kosovo which updated from dans le Kosovo to au Kosovo. An illustration of this new usage can be found in various newspaper articles and in the French Department of Foreign in European Affairs website (2008). In English, prepositions follow the rule number 3 for countries.

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French
JevaisenLorraine. NancyestenLorraine.

English
ImgoingtoLorraine. NancyisinLorraine. ImgoingtoPoitou. PoitiersisinPoitou.

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JevaisdanslePoitou. PoitiersestdanslePoitou.

This rule can also be applied to other regions in Europe (Schneider, n.d.): the French say en Bavire (in Bavaria) and dans le Bade-Wurtemberg (in Baden-Wrttemberg). All British counties genders are masculine, with the exception of Cornwall: en Cornouailles. Australian states and territories are assimilated as regions or provinces of Australia and deserve to follow this present rule: French say en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud (in New South Wales) but dans le Queensland (in Queensland). This last state did not receive a French name. The rules concerning American states, which are very important to know in case of dealing with American assignment and tasks as an English to French translator, mainly follow the same rule on regions and provinces described previously. However, the determination of whose states gender is masculine or feminine requires a good knowledge of the usage and also the historical and cultural aspect which have encompassed the strong links between France and the United States for the last 500 years. Nachtmann (1981) and Chervel (1971) both came with an extensive study of the matter which would be a good reference for those who want and need to extend their knowledge on the choice of French prepositions for American states. They demonstrate how the choice of French prepositions

related to proper names is sometimes linked to historical components known since colonial times 2 .

Case 5: prepositions in relation to French dpartements

This particular case might be of no major interest for scholars who are not dealing intensively with the nation of France. However, it represents a matter of great importance for anyone who lives or works within a French context. In order to understand the context of a dpartement, it appears useful to briefly explain their historical and cultural characteristics. The dpartements correspond to an administrative entity created during the events of the French revolution on the 4th March 1790 by the Constituent Assembly. They aimed to replace the former provinces of the Old Regime with a more rational division of the new Republics territory (Julaud, 2005, pp. 422-423). Some dpartements have been arbitrarily named after rivers (e.g. Dordogne), mountains (e.g. Jura), coastlines (e.g. Ctes-d'Armor) and even poetry (e.g. Cte-dOr) (Le Petit Champignacien Illustr, n.d.). Some dpartements, however, have kept their ancient names (e.g. Savoy), mainly due to a late accession to France 3 . Each dpartement is allocated a two-digit number. The Appendix presents a list of the 100 French dpartements and their number to consider. Except for some regions with a strong sense of regional bond (Alsace, Corsica or Brittany), the dpartement has sociologically become the territorial entity to which French people relate the most (Dargent, 2005). Prepositions in relation to dpartements account for 7 different cases in French and 2 in English, with the use of prepositions , au, la, en, dans le, dans la and dans les in French according to the Acadmie franaise (n.d.), and to and in followed by the in English 4 .

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French
JevaisdansleCalvados. CaenestdansleCalvados.

English
ImgoingtotheCalvados. CaenisintheCalvados. ImgoingtotheHauteSane. VesoulisintheHauteSane. ImgoingtotheSomme. AmiensisintheSomme. ImgoingtotheDordogne. PrigueuxisintheDordogne.

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Jevaisen/danslaHauteSane. Vesoulesten/danslaHauteSane.

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JevaisdanslaSomme. AmiensestdanslaSomme.

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JevaisenDordogne. PrigueuxestenDordogne.

As an example, Nachtmann and Chervel both mention the Louisiana case (Louisiane in French), which can eitherrefertotheancientFrenchcoloniallandorthepresentstate. 3 The historical duchy of Savoy was integrated into France in 1860 and was divided into two dpartements: SavoieandHauteSavoie. 4 An eighth preposition could be added: dans l . The L apostrophe occurs when replacing the articles la or lebeforeadpartementwhosefirstletterisavowel.E.g.danslEssonne(inEnglish:to/intheEssonne).

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JevaisenMeurtheetMoselle. NancyestenMeurtheetMoselle.

ImgoingtotheMeurtheetMoselle. NancyisintheMeurtheetMoselle. ImgoingtotheLoiretCher. BloisisintheLoiretCher. ImgoingtotheBouchesduRhne. MarseilleisintheBouchesduRhne. ImgoingtotheLandes. MontdeMarsanisintheLandes. ImgoingtotheVaucluse. AvignonisintheVaucluse. ImgoingtoMartinique. FortdeFranceisinMartinique.

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JevaisdansleLoiretCher. BloisestdansleLoiretCher.

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JevaisdanslesBouchesduRhne. MarseilleestdanslesBouchesduRhne.

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JevaisdanslesLandes. MontdeMarsanestdanslesLandes.

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JevaisenVaucluse AvignonestenVaucluse.

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Jevaisla/enMartinique. FortdeFranceestla/enMartinique.

2. Achieving equivalence
At first sight, the correspondence between French and English prepositions may seem arbitrary (Japkowicz and Wiebe, 1991). However, coherence might be found through the setting of rules of equivalences.

Case 1: Equivalences for prepositions in relation to cities

The use of prepositions to and in is in all cases preceding names of cities in English. In French, the preposition is used by default. Exceptions include cities for which an article le or la is part of their name. The prepositions to be used are respectively au and la. Cities beginning with a vowel (like Avignon) are conventionally preceded by en, although usage sometimes allows the use of . Chart 1 recapitulates the equivalent rules:
Chart1

Cities Beginningwithaconsonant Beginningwithavowel Articlelepartofthename Articlelapartofthename

Examples Paris Avignon(Provence) Amiens(restofFrance) LeHavre LaNouvelleOrlans

InFrench Paris enAvignon Amiens auHavre

InEnglish to/inParis to/inAvignon Amiens to/inLeHavre

laNouvelleOrlans to/inNewOrleans

In some sources such as French News (2008) or even the prestigious Acadmie franaise (n.d.), en Avignon is a common provincialism in Provence which should be avoided with 5

other cities outside Provence. It appears more common to say Amiens (in / to Amiens) or Angers (in / to Angers).

Case 2: Equivalences for prepositions in relation to continents

All names of continents are preceded with the prepositions to and in in English, equivalent in all cases to en in French, as shown in chart 2:
Chart2

NamesofcontinentsinFrench Afrique Amrique Antarctique Asie Europe

InFrench
enAfrique enAmrique enAntarctique enAsie enEurope

InEnglish
to/inAfrica to/inAmerica to/inAntarctica to/inAsia to/inEurope

Case 3: Equivalences for prepositions in relation to countries

The use of prepositions to and in is in all cases preceding names of countries in English. In French, en is used with feminine names of countries and with masculine names of countries beginning with a vowel. The prepositions au (singular) and aux (plural) apply before all masculine names of countries beginning with a consonant. The particular case of islands, using the preposition is always equivalent to in and to in English. These rules are summarized in chart 3:
Chart3

Countries 5 startingwithavowel (Englishnames) masculine feminine plural notprecededby anarticle

beginningwithaconsonant auCanada (in/toCanada) enFrance(France) auxPaysBas (in/totheNetherlands) Monaco (in/toMonaco)

autonomousislands
notapplicable Tawan (in/toTaiwan) auxAores (in/to[the]Azores)

enIran (in/toIran) enAustralie (in/toAustralia) auxEtatsUnis (in/totheUSA) Oman (in/toOman)

notapplicable

AnexhaustivelistofcountriesinFrenchwiththeirgivengenderandappropriateprepositioncanbefoundin the bibliography section under Schneider, A. It represents a good tool for any scholar of French who wants to accurately use the French prepositions en, au, aux and . The list also includes some of the German, Polish,Belgian,Canadian,AmericanandSwissterritorieswhichhavebeenfrancizised.

Prepositionstobeused
En Au aux

Case 4: Equivalences for prepositions in relation to regions and provinces

This case follows the same rules of equivalence as countries, with the exception of masculine names of regions and provinces. English prepositions in and to also apply here. All masculine names of regions and provinces of a given country, beginning with a consonant and a vowel, are respectively preceded by dans le and dans l . Chart 4 summarizes this rule:

Chart4

RegionsandProvinces InFrench
enNouvelleGallesduSud dansleQueensland danslOregon

InEnglish
to/inNewSouthWales to/inQueensland to/inOregon

Feminine Masculine Beginningwithaconsonant Beginningwithavowel

Case 5: Equivalences for prepositions in relation to dpartements

The names of the French dpartements rarely follow the same rule as for countries. Hesitations arise inevitably to defy any serious inventory (Orthonet, n.d.). In front of dpartements names, the rule by default is to use the preposition dans (in or to + the in English) followed by the articles le, la or les, depending on the gender and number of the dpartement: Je vais dans le Calvados, dans la Manche et dans les Yvelines. Im going to the Calvados, to the Manche and to the Yvelines

However, exceptions are found with: Some single word names starting with a vowel. In this case, en is used: Je vais en Ardche. Im going to the Ardche.

 Single word names which evoke a province from the Old regime (before 1790) use en. This case only accounts for the old Duchy of Savoy: Je vais en Savoie. Im going to (the) 6 Savoie. Compound word names following the pattern [name-et-name] such as Meurthe-etMoselle systematically used the preposition en: Je vais en Meurthe-et-Moselle. Im going to the Meurthe-et-Moselle. Compound word names following the pattern [name-name] such as Haute-Sane could either be preceded by the preposition en or the preposition dans followed by the article le, la or les determining the dpartements gender or number. Je vais en / dans la Haute-Sane . Im going to the Haute-Sane. In the case of French overseas island dpartements (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion), the English prepositions to and in can either be translated by French prepositions la or en. The dpartement of Vaucluse is an exception to the above rule. It does not have an article 7 because it was named after the village of Vaucluse, now Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. Chart 5 synthesises the different rules previously explained in order to find equivalences between French and English on prepositions relating to the French dpartements:

Chart5

Dpartements Masculinesingular
Thefirstletterisa consonantoravowel

Simpleword dansleVar enAllier danslAllier enDordogne enEssonne danslEssonne danslesLandes

Compoundword[...et...] Compoundword[......] dansleLoiretCher enEureetLoir danslEureetLoir enMeurtheetMoselle enIndreetLoire danslIndreetLoire Notapplicable Prepositionstobeused dansleBasRhin Notapplicable enHauteSavoie danslaHauteSavoie Notapplicable danslesAlpesMaritimes

Femininesingular
Thefirstletterisa consonantoravowel

Plural

The dpartement of Savoie shares its name with the larger province of Savoie (before 1860) which also included the actual dpartement of HauteSavoie. For historical reasons, British people tend to say Im goingtoSavoiemorethanImgoingtotheSavoiewhenreferringtothedpartement. 7 The name of the dpartement is dpartement de Vaucluse (literally dpartement of Vaucluse) and not dpartement du Vaucluse (in English dpartement of the Vaucluse) as used for other French dpartements.
6

dansl+en dansle

dansla+en dansles en

Exhaustive research on the matter of finding information on the usage of English prepositions for French dpartements has unfortunately led to few results. This interesting fact underlines a surprising observation. When dealing with French dpartements, the English-speaking world, the French to English translator is faced with a considerable variety of usage. Far from helping him, many grammar books, journals and dictionaries seem to only focus on the English to French direction for explaining the correct use of preposition before a dpartement. This is particularly surprising of British people, for whom France has been the closest continental neighbouring country. Since the creation of the French dpartements in 1790, there have been no rules to our knowledge to which a French to English translator could refer concerning prepositions. This is found to be very confusing to English people when they are describing their vacations and other experiences, hence referring to the names of French dpartements. Do English people say:

I have been to Dordogne or, I have been to the Dordogne? When conducting the research and by simply asking several British people 8 on this matter, it has been possible to create a synthesis of the different usages which can be found in chart 6. Moreover, French tourist organisations play an important role in enforcing a usage on prepositions relating to Frances dpartements by editing English brochures and websites which allocate the article the in front of all of them. An illustration of that endeavour can be viewed for instance on France-Voyage.com (n.d.). Chart6 Cases Thedpartementis famouslyknownin Britain Rules ExamplesinEnglish Imgoing Frenchtranslation jevais

useofprepositionstoorin+the ...totheDordogne. ...enDordogne.

For the purpose of this essay, it was thought to be more accurate to ask British people that question. They have many more opportunities to travel to France than Australians and because of this matter, to develop a certainusageofEnglishprepositionsregardingtheFrenchdpartementstheyhavevisited.
8

Thedpartementis notparticularly known.The speaker/writerfinds theneedtocomplete thenametoclarifyit toBritish audience/readership. Thespeaker/writer emphasisesthe administrative territory.His/her audience/readershipis supposedto understandthe conceptofaFrench dpartement.

useofprepositionstoorin+the ...totheVarregion. ...dansleVar. Thenameofthedpartementis followedbythewordregion9 or sometimesarea.

useofprepositionstoorin+the ...totheAin dpartement. Thenameofthedpartementis followedbytheworddpartement. useofprepositionstoorin+ the Thenameofthedpartementis precededbytheword dpartementandthepreposition of. ...tothe dpartementof Ain.

danslAin.

Conclusion
The research on French and English prepositions has shown the need to insist on the difference between a rule and a usage (Orthonet, n.d.). As a language is living and changing with the time, so the rules on prepositions relating to names of geographical places can be modified by usage. External political events can also influence the redefinition of rules, as demonstrated with the Kosovo case. However, it is important to lean on a valid rule, especially for the learning of a language such as French which has a larger declension in the use of prepositions. When conducting the research, the difficulty in finding some specific information about contrastive analysis of French and English prepositions relating to geographical places was somehow surprising. In most grammar books or dictionaries, rules are either incomplete, or inexact or simply missing. Gathering information on the topic was similar to a task of putting the pieces of the puzzle together in order to have a complete picture of the issue. Surely, this paper, due to its limited size, has not been able to consider a contrastive analysis of more prepositions, such as of, at, out of or into which can be employed in relation to geographical names. The preposition of (de in French) is particularly crucial as its French counterpart happens to be the most used preposition in the French language (Volk and Tidstrm, 2007).

The use of region could be quite confusing in particular contexts, as a rgion in France represents an administrativeentityembracingseveraldpartements.
9

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Bibliography
Acadmie franaise. (n.d.). Questions de langues. Retrieved October 7, 2008 from http://www.academie-francaise.fr/langue/questions.html#localites. Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators Incorporated. (n.d.). AUSIT Code of Ethics for Interpreters & Translators. Retrieved October 2, 2008 from http://www.ausit.org/eng/showpage.php3?id=650. Calvez, D. J. (2005). French Grammar A Complete Reference Guide. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Chervil, A. P. (1971). Les Noms des tats des Etats-Unis au complment de lieu. The French Review, (44), 6, 1094-1099. Dargent, C. (2001). Identits rgionales et aspirations politiques : lexemple de la France daujourdhui. Revue franaise de science politique, (51), 2001/5, 787-806. France-Voyage.com. (n.d.). Travel Guide. Retrieved October 7, 2008 from http://www.francevoyage.com/en. French News. (2008). Prepositions Part 1: . Retrieved October 5, 2008 from http://www.frenchnews.com/content/view/3559/221/lang,en. Japkowicz, N. & Wiebe, J.M. (1991). A system for translating locative prepositions from English to French. Toronto: Toronto University Press. Julaud, J.-J. (2005). LHistoire de France illustre. Paris: Editions Gnrales First. Le Petit Champignacien Illustr (n.d.). Genre, nombre et prpositions des dpartements. Retrieved October 6, 2008 from http://monsu.desiderio.free.fr/curiosites/departements.html. Ministre des Affaires trangres et europennes. (2008). Kosovo - Dernire minute. Retrieved October 9, 2008 from http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-auxvoyageurs_909/pays_12191/kosovo_18411/index.html. Nachtmann, F. W. (1981). French Prepositions with American Place Names. The French Review, (55), 1, 88-92. Offord, M. (2006). A Student Grammar of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Orthonet. (n.d.). Informations - page 10. Retrieved October 6, 2008 from http://orthonet.sdv.fr/pages/informations_p10.html. Schneider, A. (n.d.). Les noms de pays en franais - construction et drivs. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from http://alain.j.schneider.free.fr/pays.htm. Vaguer, C. (2006). Les prpositions : petits mots de grandes valeurs. Le Mensuel de l lUniversit. Retrieved October 6, 2008 from http://www.lemensuel.net/Les-prepositions-petits-mots-de.html. Volk, M. And Tidstrm, F. (2007). Comparing French PP-attachment to English, German and Swedish. Retrieved October 10, 2008 from http://ling16.ling.su.se:8080/new_PubDB/doc_repository/231_14.pdf. Worth-Stylianou, V. (1994). Cassell's Contemporary French: A Handbook of Grammar, Current Usage, and Word Power. London: Macmillan Publishing.

Appendix: French rgions and dpartements

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