French Verb question!

irish-anabel

Hi, quick question for anyone who's nearly fluent!
How do you know when to put 'a' 'pour' or 'de' or nothing at all infront of a full verb?
For example, if I want to say, "An oppurtunity to fulfill..." my first instinct is to put 'de' as in:
une occasion DE remplir...
Maybe that's right... but I just realised I have no idea how I know, is there a rule I should be following? I know sometimes it's pour and sometimes you need nothing before it.

(preferably answered before tomorrow morning!!)

Thanks

echoindia756

the way the french would say it literally would be "an opportunity in order to
fulfill"

So you'd write, un occasion afin de "full verb here"

dyeti

echoindia756 wrote: »

the way the french would say it literally would be "an opportunity in order to
fulfill"

So you'd write, un occasion afin de "full verb here"

Pretty much. Pour can more or less translate into "in order to", ie in order to eat=pour manger. De is often part of the verb itself, but if not, it's used "as a cause/result", ie mourir de faim=dying of hunger.

irish-anabel

ok, is that a general rule or just for one's like that?
Just to make sure...(thinking of another example).... if I want to say... "the government must blah de blah to decrease the blah blah"

would it still be "afin de diminuer"?

dyeti

irish-anabel wrote: »

ok, is that a general rule or just for one's like that?
Just to make sure...(thinking of another example).... if I want to say... "the government must blah de blah to decrease the blah blah"

would it still be "afin de diminuer"?

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking... The "cause of/result=de" thing is a rule. De is often part of a verb itself, like arreter de. It is always used when you're using avoir+ noun

As for afin, I don't really recall it being used with de. It's usually followed by the subjonctive. Like for example "Je le ferai afin que nous puissions partir" would be the way to use afin (At least the way I learned it!)

irish-anabel

oh sorry DYETI, I wrote that reply before I saw yours.
well I'm talking about before a full verb like you're doing something in order to--full verb---
So going back to the first example, full sentence: it gives the yong people an oppurtunity to fullfill their potential->
"il donne aux jeunes une occasion ____ remplir leurs potentiel"

'afin de' or 'pour'??

thanks for the help!

bette

irish-anabel wrote: »

ok, is that a general rule or just for one's like that?
Just to make sure...(thinking of another example).... if I want to say... "the government must blah de blah to decrease the blah blah"

would it still be "afin de diminuer"?

Le gouvernement doit agir afin de diminuer
Le gouvernement doit agir dans le but de diminuer

aine92

"de" simply means of or from.