Adjectives and Nouns with à or de

The verbs page established the unwelcome fact that a French verb's preposition is a property of the verb, learned with it, with no rule behind it. Adjectives and nouns work the same way.

content . (I am glad to see you.)
à . (I am ready to leave.)
a . (He has the right to refuse.)

So far, so familiar. What makes this page necessary rather than a footnote is that adjectives add something verbs do not have: the same adjective can take either preposition, and the choice depends on the shape of the sentence rather than on what the adjective means.

The adjectives that take de

Overwhelmingly the adjectives of feeling and certainty. If it describes an emotional state or a degree of confidence, bet on .

Adjective	Example
content	content


	d'
	d'

capable	capable

is worth flagging because it takes with a noun as well: son (proud of her son). And content, and the rest are the emotion triggers from the infinitive or subjunctive page, where plus infinitive is what you use instead of plus a subjunctive when the subject is shared.

The adjectives that take à

A shorter cluster, around readiness, habit and rank.

Adjective	Example
à	à
décidé à	décidé à
à	à
lent à	lent à
à	à
à	à
à	à

à is the one English speakers get wrong most, because "ready of" is nonsense in English and "ready to" suggests for no reason anybody can articulate. It is à. Also note the ordinals: , , all take à plus an infinitive, which is a tidy little rule with no exceptions.

The c'est / il est flip

Here is the part worth the page. Four or five common adjectives, , , , impossible, , take either preposition, and the trigger is structural.

à . (This book is easy to read.)
. (It is easy to read this book.)

Both correct. Both saying the same thing. The difference is where the book is.

Use à when the thing has already been named and now sits in the subject slot. The infinitive is left dangling with no object of its own, because its object is the subject.

à . - the book is the subject; has nothing after it.
C' à . (That's hard to understand.) - is the thing; has nothing after it.

Use plus when is an empty placeholder and the infinitive still has its own object to carry.

. - refers to nothing; has .
important d' à l'.

The test in one line: look at what comes after the infinitive. Something there, you need and . Nothing there, you need à.

A practical note. In speech, c' has largely swallowed in this construction, so you will hear c' constantly. It is fine in conversation and shaky in an essay; is the form to write.

The nouns: nearly always de

The easiest list here, because it is close to a rule. A noun followed by an infinitive takes .

Noun	Example
	a


l'occasion	l'occasion
	n'
courage	courage
l'intention	l'intention

l'	j'

The expressions belong here too, and they are the ones you use daily: , , , , l'intention , .

The exception is small and easy to spot: a noun takes à plus an infinitive when the infinitive says what the thing is for.

machine à (a washing machine, a machine for washing), à (a dining room)
chose à (something to drink), à (nothing to be done)

That second pair, chose à and à , is high-frequency and worth having by heart.

Why English intuition fails here

It is worth naming the mechanism, because knowing why you are wrong helps more than being told you are.

English has two prepositions doing this job, of and to, and neither maps cleanly.

English	French	French à
to	right to = droit	ready to = prêt à
to	time to = temps	first to = premier à

Four English phrases, all with to, and French splits them two and two. An English-trained ear has no signal to work with, so it guesses, and guessing gives you roughly half right, which is the worst possible score because it feels like competence.

The fix is the same as for the verbs: store the pair, not the word. à. . . à. Say them together often enough and the linker stops being a decision.

Worked examples

à . (We are ready to start.) - readiness, so à, and the adjective agrees.
C' à . (That's hard to believe.) - has no object after it, so à.
. (It is hard to believe that story.) - carries , so and .
a à . (She was the only one who understood.) - , so à.
n' l'occasion . (I didn't get the chance to speak to him.) - noun, so .
y a chose à ? (Is there anything to drink?) - the à of purpose after a noun.

Common mistakes English speakers make

The headline error is for à, which is so common it is almost a dialect; the same instinct produces le premier de arriver and décidé de réussir when all three want à. The mirror error is à after a noun: it is and , never le droit à refuser. The third is the c' / flip in the wrong direction, giving il est facile à lire ce livre or ce livre est facile de lire; check whether the infinitive has an object of its own and the choice makes itself. The fourth is stacking a linker onto a clause, producing je suis content de que tu viennes; the is the infinitive form of the trigger and disappears the moment a second subject brings in. The fifth is forgetting that the adjective still agrees while you are worrying about the preposition: , , à . Finally, do not carry a verb's preposition over to its related adjective or noun. but décidé à; and happen to match, and that coincidence is exactly what tempts you to generalise.

The verbs with à, de or nothing page covers the same choice after a conjugated verb.
The infinitive or subjunctive page covers when de plus infinitive replaces que plus a subjunctive after these very adjectives.
The adjective agreement page covers the endings that still have to be right while you choose a linker.
The partitives and de page covers the other jobs de does in French.
The prepositions page covers à and de in their ordinary spatial and possessive senses.
The French grammar cheatsheet covers the whole A1-B2 grammar map at a glance.

Practise: test yourself

Fill in the blank

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Supply the missing linker: à, d' or de. Read what the adjective or noun is, not what the English would have said.

Je suis content te voir. (adjective of feeling)
Je suis prêt partir. (adjective of readiness)
Elle est fière son fils. (fier always takes this one)
Il a le droit refuser. (noun plus infinitive)
J'ai peur tomber. (avoir peur)
Ce livre est facile lire. (the book is already the subject)
Il est facile lire ce livre. (empty il, and the infinitive has its own object)
Je n'ai pas le temps le faire. (noun plus infinitive)
Elle est la première arriver. (premier, seul and dernier all take this one)
Je suis désolé être en retard. (adjective of feeling, before a vowel)
Il est difficile comprendre cette idée. (the infinitive carries its own object)
C'est difficile comprendre. (no object after the infinitive)

Pick the right one

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Choose the correct French. Several of these are pairs where the English is identical and only the structure decides.

I am glad to see you.
I am ready to leave.
This book is easy to read.
It is easy to read this book.
He has the right to refuse.
I am afraid of falling.
She was the first to arrive.
A washing machine.
I am pleased you came.
I did not have time to do it.

Translation drill

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Translate into French. Watch the pairs: two of these change linker only because the object moved.

I am glad to see you.
I am ready to leave.
She is proud of her son.
He has the right to refuse.
I am afraid of falling.
This book is easy to read.
It is difficult to understand that idea.
I did not have time to do it.
She was the first to arrive.
I am sorry to be late.

Frequently asked questions

When does a French adjective take de and when does it take à before an infinitive?

Broadly, adjectives of feeling take de and adjectives of readiness or capacity take à. content de, heureux de, ravi de, désolé de, fier de, sûr de, capable de all describe how you feel or what you are certain of. prêt à, disposé à, décidé à, habitué à, le premier à, le seul à all describe being set up for something. The clusters are honest but not watertight, so learn the pair with the adjective. The genuinely tricky adjectives are facile, difficile, agréable and impossible, which take either depending on the sentence structure rather than on the meaning.

What is the difference between c'est facile à faire and il est facile de le faire?

Nothing in meaning, everything in structure. Use à when the thing being talked about has already been named and the infinitive has no object of its own: ce livre est facile à lire, c'est difficile à comprendre. Use il est plus de when il is an empty placeholder and the infinitive carries its own object: il est facile de lire ce livre, il est difficile de comprendre cette idée. The clean test: if the infinitive is followed by its own object, you need il est and de. If the object has already been mentioned and is now sitting in the subject slot, you need à.

Which French nouns take de before an infinitive?

Almost all of them, which makes this the easiest list on the page. le droit de, la peur de, une raison de, l'occasion de, le temps de, le courage de, l'intention de, le plaisir de, la manière de, le moyen de, l'envie de, le besoin de. il a le droit de refuser, je n'ai pas le temps de le faire, elle a eu le courage de partir. The handful of à nouns are almost all describing what a thing is for rather than an action somebody takes: une machine à laver, une salle à manger, un fer à repasser.

Why do English speakers guess the wrong preposition here?

Because English uses of and to in ways that do not line up with French de and à. I am afraid of falling looks like it should be peur de, and it is, which builds false confidence. Then I am ready to go looks like it should be prêt de, and it is not, it is prêt à. He has the right to refuse looks like à and is de. English to maps onto both French prepositions and English of maps onto neither reliably, so an intuition trained on English gets roughly half of these right, which is exactly the hit rate that stops you noticing the problem.

Is there a difference between être content de and être content que?

Yes, and it is the same-subject rule rather than anything to do with prepositions. je suis content de venir uses an infinitive because one person does both things. je suis content que tu viennes uses que plus a subjunctive because there are two subjects. The de is the infinitive form of the trigger, so the two never appear together: je suis content de que tu viennes is not French. Every adjective of feeling on this page behaves that way.