Why is en used before retard and avance
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AdvikaKwiziq community member
Why is en used before retard and avance
Thank you very much
This question relates to:French lesson "Expressing timeliness (late, early, on time) - in general"
Asked 4 years ago
GruffKwiziq team member
Hi Advika - there's no logic to which prepositions are used in most cases I'm afraid. You just have to learn them by heart. Best wishes, Gruff
Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Does this include the use of "de" in the example Je suis d'être en retard"? I was wondering why there needs to be the "de" before the verb être. Thank you.
GruffKwiziq team member
Hi Robin, I think you missed reading the word désolé in the example with 'de':
"Je suis désolé d'être en retard"
An alternative translation in English might be "I'm sorry about being late" where 'about' is playing a similar role to 'de' (but notice in French the infinitive, être, follows, whereas in English we follow with the present participle in this example).
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