One of the most reliable patterns in French syntax is also one of the rules English speakers most often break: after a preposition, French uses the infinitive, not the gerund. Avant de partir (before leaving), sans manger (without eating), pour réussir (in order to succeed), au lieu de travailler (instead of working) — every one of these would take an -ing form in English, and every one of them takes the bare infinitive in French. There is one notorious exception (en + gérondif), and the rule is so clean that, once you internalize it, you can produce sentences you have never heard.
This page covers the half-dozen highest-frequency prepositional templates, the small but important class of verb-plus-preposition idioms (avoir peur de faire, décider de partir), and the one preposition — en — that actually does take the gérondif. By the end you should be able to look at any preposition in French and reach for the infinitive without hesitation.
The core rule
After a preposition, French uses an infinitive. The English equivalent almost always uses an -ing form, and importing the -ing habit into French is the single most common transfer error of A2 learners.
Je suis parti sans dire au revoir.
I left without saying goodbye.
Pour bien parler français, il faut écouter de la musique française.
To speak French well, you have to listen to French music.
Au lieu de te plaindre, fais quelque chose !
Instead of complaining, do something!
These three sentences would each carry an -ing form in English (saying, speaking, complaining). All three take the bare infinitive in French. Get this contrast in your ear and you will save yourself thousands of small mistakes.
The high-frequency templates
There are perhaps eight or nine prepositional templates that account for the overwhelming majority of preposition + infinitive constructions in everyday French. Learn them as fixed patterns first, and the rest will fall into place.
avant de + infinitive — before V-ing
Used to mark an action that precedes another. Note the obligatory de — French does not allow a bare avant before a verb.
Lave-toi les mains avant de manger.
Wash your hands before eating.
Avant de partir en voyage, j'ai vérifié trois fois ma valise.
Before leaving on a trip, I checked my suitcase three times.
Réfléchis avant de répondre.
Think before you answer.
The de is mandatory and comes from a deeper logic: avant on its own takes a noun (avant le repas — before the meal); to attach a verb you need the connector de to nominalize the infinitive. The same insertion appears with au lieu de, afin de, à condition de, à moins de, de peur de, and à force de.
après + infinitif passé — after V-ing
The mirror of avant de — but with one important twist: après takes the infinitif passé (the compound infinitive), not the bare infinitive. Logically this makes perfect sense: if the action is already over, you need a perfect form. Practically, it means you must already be comfortable with avoir and être + past participle.
Après avoir mangé, on est allés se promener au bord du lac.
After eating, we went for a walk along the lake.
Après être rentré chez moi, j'ai vu que j'avais laissé mes clés au bureau.
After getting home, I saw I had left my keys at the office.
Après s'être douchée, elle a mis sa plus belle robe.
After taking a shower, she put on her nicest dress.
A constraint worth flagging now: après + infinitif passé requires the same subject in both clauses. If the subjects differ, you must switch to après que + indicative. So après avoir mangé, on est partis is fine (we ate, we left — same on); but after he left, I went home must be après qu'il est parti, je suis rentré. The detailed treatment is on the dedicated page on l'infinitif passé.
sans + infinitive — without V-ing
Marks the absence of an action. Sans never takes a de before the infinitive — it is the bare connector itself.
Il est sorti sans faire de bruit pour ne pas réveiller le bébé.
He went out without making any noise so as not to wake the baby.
Tu peux le faire sans regarder la recette ?
Can you do it without looking at the recipe?
J'ai signé le contrat sans le lire — quelle erreur.
I signed the contract without reading it — what a mistake.
Notice that pronouns slot in front of the infinitive: sans le lire, never sans lire le. This is the standard infinitive position for object pronouns and is true across all the prepositional templates on this page.
pour + infinitive — (in order) to V
The everyday way of expressing purpose. English often drops the "in order" and just says "to": I went to the store to buy bread = je suis allé au magasin pour acheter du pain.
Je travaille le soir pour payer mes études.
I work in the evenings to pay for my studies.
On est venus pour te voir, pas pour rester deux heures à attendre.
We came to see you, not to wait around for two hours.
Pour comprendre la France, il faut comprendre son histoire.
To understand France, you have to understand its history.
A subtlety: when the purpose verb has the same subject as the main verb, pour + infinitive is the natural choice. When the subjects differ, French shifts to pour que + subjunctive (je t'écris pour que tu saches — I'm writing so that you know).
afin de + infinitive — in order to V (formal)
A more formal alternative to pour. Afin de is preferred in writing, official communication, and elevated speech; in everyday conversation, pour is more common.
Afin de mieux comprendre vos besoins, nous vous invitons à remplir ce questionnaire. (formal)
In order to better understand your needs, we invite you to fill out this questionnaire.
Le gouvernement a pris ces mesures afin de protéger les plus vulnérables. (formal)
The government took these measures in order to protect the most vulnerable.
The mirror conjunction afin que + subjunctive handles the different-subject case, exactly like pour que.
au lieu de + infinitive — instead of V-ing
Highly idiomatic and very common in spoken French — used to substitute one action for another that the speaker thinks the listener should not do.
Au lieu de te coucher tard tous les soirs, essaie de dormir avant minuit.
Instead of going to bed late every night, try to sleep before midnight.
Il regarde son téléphone au lieu d'écouter ce qu'on lui dit.
He looks at his phone instead of listening to what people tell him.
The construction often carries a faint reproach. Native speakers use it to suggest that the listener has chosen the wrong activity.
à condition de / à moins de + infinitive
Two related conditional connectors that take the infinitive when the subject is the same as the main clause; with a different subject, they switch to à condition que / à moins que + subjunctive.
Je viendrai à condition de pouvoir partir avant onze heures.
I'll come provided I can leave before eleven.
On ne va pas y arriver, à moins de partir immédiatement.
We're not going to make it unless we leave right now.
These two connectors are most common in slightly elevated registers — work emails, careful conversation, news writing — but you will hear them in everyday speech too, particularly à moins de.
de peur de / de crainte de + infinitive — for fear of V-ing
Used to express the motivation behind a precaution or hesitation. De peur de is the more common form; de crainte de is slightly more formal.
Il marche doucement de peur de réveiller le bébé.
He walks slowly for fear of waking the baby.
Elle n'a rien dit, de crainte de blesser son ami. (slightly formal)
She said nothing, for fear of hurting her friend.
à force de + infinitive — by dint of V-ing, by V-ing repeatedly
A wonderfully French construction that names the cause of a result by pointing to repeated effort. There is no clean English equivalent — "by dint of" is archaic; "from V-ing so much" is the closest natural translation.
À force de répéter, j'ai fini par retenir tout le poème.
From repeating it over and over, I ended up memorizing the whole poem.
À force de manger trop vite, il a mal au ventre.
From eating too fast all the time, his stomach hurts.
This construction is fully colloquial and very common; it is one of those expressions that mark a learner as advanced when they start using it.
The exception: en + gérondif
There is exactly one preposition in French that does not take the infinitive: en. After en, you use the gérondif — the form en + verb-stem + -ant.
Je l'ai rencontré en allant au marché.
I met him while going to the market.
On apprend en faisant des erreurs.
You learn by making mistakes.
En arrivant à la gare, j'ai vu mon train partir.
On arriving at the station, I saw my train leave.
This is the only common case where French aligns with English's "preposition + -ing" pattern, and it is precisely because English speakers have already learned it that they sometimes overgeneralize and use the gérondif after other prepositions. Don't. The rule is: en takes the gérondif, everything else takes the infinitive.
The full uses of the gérondif (simultaneity, manner, condition) are covered on the dedicated gérondif page.
Verbs that govern an infinitive with their own preposition
A separate but related pattern: many French verbs take an obligatory preposition (usually de or à) before an infinitive. These are not free prepositional phrases — they are fixed lexical combinations specific to each verb. You learn them as part of the verb's entry, the way English speakers learn that we say "depend on" but "consist of."
A handful of high-frequency examples with de:
- avoir peur de faire — to be afraid to do
- décider de faire — to decide to do
- essayer de faire — to try to do
- finir de faire — to finish doing
- oublier de faire — to forget to do
- refuser de faire — to refuse to do
- promettre de faire — to promise to do
- risquer de faire — to risk doing
J'ai peur de me tromper devant tout le monde.
I'm afraid of making a mistake in front of everyone.
Elle a décidé de changer de travail après dix ans dans la même boîte.
She decided to change jobs after ten years at the same company.
N'oublie pas de fermer la porte à clé en partant.
Don't forget to lock the door when you leave.
A handful with à:
- aider quelqu'un à faire — to help someone do
- apprendre à faire — to learn to do
- commencer à faire — to start doing
- continuer à faire — to keep doing
- hésiter à faire — to hesitate to do
- réussir à faire — to succeed in doing
Mon père m'a appris à conduire quand j'avais dix-sept ans.
My father taught me to drive when I was seventeen.
On a commencé à manger sans toi, désolés.
We started eating without you, sorry.
The choice of preposition (à or de or none) is fundamentally arbitrary from an English-speaker's perspective — there is no rule, just memorization per verb. The dedicated page on À ou De + Infinitif gives the full reference list.
Pronoun placement
When a preposition + infinitive construction takes object pronouns, the pronouns slot directly before the infinitive, not before the preposition. This is the universal rule for infinitives in French.
Je l'ai fait sans le lire.
I did it without reading it.
Avant de leur parler, prends une grande inspiration.
Before talking to them, take a deep breath.
Pour le comprendre, il faut le connaître depuis longtemps.
To understand him, you have to have known him a long time.
In compound infinitives (after après), pronouns sit before the auxiliary: après l'avoir vu (after seeing him), après leur avoir parlé (after speaking to them).
Après l'avoir lu, je l'ai prêté à ma sœur.
After reading it, I lent it to my sister.
Après lui avoir téléphoné, j'ai compris que tout allait bien.
After calling him, I understood that everything was fine.
Why this rule? — a brief comparative note
If you are coming from English, the preposition + infinitive rule can feel arbitrary. Why doesn't French use the gerund the way English does? The answer is comparative-historical: French inherited the Latin tradition of using the infinitive as a verbal noun, and the gérondif (originally a Latin ablative construction) narrowed to the very specific simultaneity-and-manner uses signaled by en. English, by contrast, generalized the -ing form across both noun-uses and adverbial-uses, and the boundary between gerund and present participle became fuzzy.
Practically, this means English speakers must build a new habit: in French, the gerund-noun is the infinitive, full stop. I like swimming is j'aime nager. I'm thinking about leaving is je pense à partir. He left without saying goodbye is il est parti sans dire au revoir. The English -ing maps onto a French infinitive in every preposition + verb context, with the single exception of the en + gérondif construction.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using the gérondif after prepositions that require the infinitive.
❌ Je suis parti sans disant au revoir.
Wrong: sans takes the infinitive, not the gérondif.
✅ Je suis parti sans dire au revoir.
I left without saying goodbye.
Mistake 2: Forgetting the de in avant de.
❌ Lave-toi les mains avant manger.
Wrong: avant + verb requires the connector de — avant de manger.
✅ Lave-toi les mains avant de manger.
Wash your hands before eating.
Mistake 3: Using the bare infinitive after après instead of the infinitif passé.
❌ Après manger, on est sortis.
Wrong: après + verb takes the infinitif passé — après avoir mangé.
✅ Après avoir mangé, on est sortis.
After eating, we went out.
Mistake 4: Translating English for + V-ing word for word with pour.
❌ Merci pour venir.
Awkward — pour expresses purpose, not gratitude. With merci, use de + infinitive (or de + infinitif passé for a completed action).
✅ Merci d'être venu.
Thank you for coming.
Mistake 5: Putting object pronouns in the wrong place.
❌ Je l'ai fait sans lire le.
Wrong: object pronouns precede the infinitive — sans le lire.
✅ Je l'ai fait sans le lire.
I did it without reading it.
Mistake 6: Using the gérondif after en train de.
❌ Je suis en train de mangeant.
Wrong: en train de is a fixed expression that takes the infinitive — en train de manger.
✅ Je suis en train de manger.
I'm in the middle of eating / I'm eating right now.
Key takeaways
- After almost every French preposition, the verb appears in the infinitive — never the gérondif.
- The single exception is en
- gérondif (en mangeant).
- Avant de, au lieu de, afin de, à condition de, à moins de, de peur de, and à force de all require the connector de before the infinitive.
- Après takes the infinitif passé (compound infinitive) — après avoir mangé, not après manger.
- Same-subject constraint with après + infinitif passé, à condition de, à moins de, afin de: if the two clauses have different subjects, switch to après que / à condition que / à moins que / afin que
- the appropriate finite mood.
- Many French verbs take an obligatory à or de before an infinitive (essayer de faire, commencer à faire). The choice is arbitrary and must be memorized per verb.
- Object pronouns sit immediately before the infinitive (sans le lire, avant de lui parler).
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- L'Infinitif: OverviewA2 — The French infinitive is the bare verb form (parler, finir, vendre, faire). It is the dictionary entry, the most syntactically flexible form of the verb, and the form English speakers most often misuse — usually because they reach for the '-ing' form where French wants the bare infinitive.
- L'Infinitif PasséB1 — The infinitif passé is French's compact way of expressing 'having done something' — a single verbal phrase that fits inside après-clauses, after merci de, and as the complement of penser, croire, and être désolé. Master its formation and the four high-frequency contexts where it lives.
- De vs À with Verbs Before an InfinitiveA2 — When one French verb is followed by another in the infinitive, the link between them is either nothing, the preposition de, or the preposition à. The choice is largely arbitrary and must be memorised verb by verb — but there are patterns and tendencies that make the lists learnable.
- Le Gérondif: Overview of the French GerundA2 — The French gérondif — *en* + the *-ant* form of the verb — packs three jobs into one tidy construction: simultaneity ('while doing X'), means ('by doing X'), and condition ('if you do X'). It is everywhere in spoken French, and English speakers need it to break free of clumsy *pendant que* paraphrases.
- Avant, Après: before, afterA2 — Avant and après look symmetrical — both express temporal sequence, both pair with nouns, infinitives, and clauses. But the way each combines with verbs is sharply different, and the mood asymmetry between avant que and après que is one of the most-tested points in French grammar.
- Avec, Sans: with, withoutA1 — Avec and sans are the basic French prepositions for accompaniment and absence — but where English uses a gerund after without (without eating), French uses an infinitive (sans manger). Mastering this pair means learning how French combines prepositions with verb forms.