# FR: essayer de + infinitif - préposition



## MimbulusMimbletonia

Hi,
I've got myself into a bit of a muddle..
I have a sentence with a conjugated verb and two infinitives and i have to decide whether to use à, de or nothing between the verbs. Does the de/à correspond with the verb directly preceeding it or the conjugated verb?

Example
Je vais essayer de gagner 
or
Je vais essayer gagner

Thanks aplenty
Emma

*Moderator note:* multiple threads merged to create this one.


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## calembourde

It always corresponds with the verb directly preceding it, which is _essayer_ in this case, so your first answer is correct. I don't think there are any rules about which verbs take which conjunctions, you just have to learn them.


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## mylasalle

In our French class, the class was asked to guess the profession that was mimed. The instructions in French said:

"La classe essaie de deviner."

I am somewhat confused by the use of DE in this construction. Shouldn't it be without DE? 

"La classe essaie deviner" ??

Thank you in advance for any assistance.


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## janpol

non, c'est "essayer de"


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## Angelik0

Usually we are trying *to/not to *do something, and it's the same in french " on essaye *de/ de ne pas *faire quelque chose"

Do you see what I mean ?


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## mylasalle

I think I understand. So it does not always follow that   DE  means "OF" or "SOME?"   Sometimes it's just used as a connector?


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## jann

mylasalle said:


> So it does not always follow that   DE  means "OF" or "SOME?"   Sometimes it's just used as a connector?


Correct.  Actually, _de_ has a few different functions in French, which makes this word confusing for English-speakers. The "some" function is when _de_ is a partitive article.  

But in this case, _de _is a preposition - it links the verb _essayer_ (to try) with the next verb that tells what you try to do.   

_essayer de faire quelque chose_ = to try to do something 
_essayer faire quelque chose_  grammatically incorrect

_essayer de nager, essayer de mettre en application la solution de Jean_ - to try to swim, to try to implement Jean's solution.

On the other hand, if you have a noun after _essayer_, instead of another verb, you don't need the preposition. 

_essayer quelque chose_ = to try something 
_essayer de quelque chose_ 
_essayer la nage, essayer la solution de Jean_  - to try swimming, to try Jean's solution

There's no "rule" or way you can figure these structures out from scratch.  So when you learn that _essayer_ means "to try," you also need to learn the structures that go with it.  You can find them the dictionary.  

Does that help?


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## dlay8846

Is there a general rule for knowing which verbs  have to be follwed by 'de' when there is an infinitive after the 'de' e.g. j'essaie de finir but je désire finir? Or do they just have to be learnt verb by verb?


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## Arrius

You have to learn what preposition (or none) to use with each individual verb. Reading and listening a lot will help.


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## Duplicité Humaine

Il y a TOUJOURS des exceptions qu'il faut mémorizer; il y a cependant quelques quasi-règles. Tel est souvent, pas toujous, le cas avec les verbes pronominaux. 
*S'efforcer de / Forcer à*
*ll y a b/c d'exemples, recherchez-les que vous puissiez les commettre à mémoire; après du temps, les propositions vous arriveront naturellement.*


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## itka

> You have to learn what preposition (or none) to use with each individual verb. Reading and listening a lot will help.


 You are perfectly right ! No rule at all can help you...


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## magshoe

I was wondering why you use "de" before apprendre in the sentence  "j'essaye d'apprendre", but not in the sentence "je vais apprendre "?


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## janpol

Le verbe "essayer" s'emploie avec la préposition "de" quand il est suivi d'un verbe : j'essaie de courir 20 km / de réparer cet ordi / de traverser mon jardin en marchant sur les mains / d'apprendre la liste des verbes qui exigent la préposition de...
Par contre "aller" (auxiliaire du futur proche) se construit de façon directe : je vais partir / dormir / travailler / manger...


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## magshoe

Merci! So it's basically just a list of verbs using different prepositions I'll have to learn...


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## janpol

Magshoe, "apprendre la liste des verbes qui exigent la préposition de..." était une boutade : même si le nombre de ces verbes  

est relativement réduit, je pense que personne n'apprend de telles listes. Les natifs apprennent à utiliser ces verbes en les 

rencontrant au cours de leurs lectures.


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## HerbertX

janpol said:


> Les natifs apprennent à utiliser ces verbes en les
> rencontrant au cours de leurs lectures.



Et les non-natifs doivent toujours soigneusement noter et apprendre les prépositions qui suivent (ou pas) le verbe. Donc :
essayer *de* faire qc, apprendre* à* faire qc, désir*er f*aire qc


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