De vs Du, De la, Des - French Prepositions and Articles

De vs Du, De la, Des - French Prepositions and Articles

I recently read a book I enjoyed called The Elegance of the Hedgehog, (in french) and the lovely concierge there made me want to improve my french grammar. So today I have to send off a grant proposal, thankfully most of it can be written in english, but they do ask for a 5000 character abstract in french, and that's where the apple fell, as they say. My french grammar still needs work. One of the things I have a hard time with is the use of "de" and "des". Found this web site, that is very clear, but these rules are too long to remember. I've decided that for now I'll jus remember the use in the negative (always "de").....

I am getting a better hang of the accents, until now I have been depending on the spell checker, but I've recently realized that if I put them in myself (using a french keyboard) it actually goes faster. i still get a bunch worng, but it's improving.

Anyway, I have pulled an all nighter for this grant. Had not happened in years. But now I'm all woozy .... just waiting for my colleague to correct the abstract and then I'm off to dreamland.