Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

When expressing the cause of an event in French, the preposition you choose depends entirely on the outcome of the situation.

### Negative Outcomes: à cause de

When a situation has a negative (or sometimes neutral) result, use **à cause de** (because of / due to) followed by a noun. This phrase is typically used when placing blame, such as during a media scandal or PR crisis.

{{item:878135}}

{{item:878145}}

{{item:878149}}

### Positive Outcomes: grâce à

When a situation has a positive or beneficial result, use **grâce à** (thanks to) followed by a noun. You use this to give credit for a success, like saving a reputation or managing a crisis well.

{{item:878139}}

{{item:878143}}

Notice that both of these prepositional phrases can be placed at the end of the sentence, or at the very beginning to emphasize the cause.

{{item:878150}}

{{item:878151}}

{{item:878152}}

Prepositions of cause (grâce à, à cause de)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

contraction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

phrase

prep

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular 'to be' and indefinite articles (je suis un...)

Singular definite articles (le, la, l')

Identifying vs. describing (c'est vs. il est)

Feminine adjective agreement (+e)

Plural pronouns and 'to be' (nous sommes, vous êtes)

Formal and informal you (tu vs. vous)

Plural nouns and indefinite articles (des... -s)

Plural definite articles (les)

Plural adjective agreement (+s)

Stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui)

The verb "to have" singular (j'ai, tu as, il a)

The verb "to have" plural (nous avons, vous avez, ils ont)

There is / there are (il y a)

Basic verbal negation (ne... pas)

Negating "there is" (il n'y a pas de)

Regular -er verbs singular (je parle, tu parles, il parle)

Regular -er verbs plural (nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent)

The verb "to be called" (s'appeler)

Yes/no questions with intonation (Tu parles ?)

Yes/no questions with "Est-ce que" (Est-ce que tu parles ?)

Informal questions (qui, que, quoi)

Standard questions (est-ce que)

Singular possessives (mon, ton, son)

Plural possessives (notre, votre, leur)

Demonstrative adjectives (ce, cet, cette, ces)

Adjective placement

Numbers 1 to 20

Numbers 21 to 100

Age and physical states (avoir)

The verb to go (aller)

The preposition to/at (à, au, aux)

Question word for location (où)

Prepositions for cities and countries (à, en, au, aux)

The verb to come (venir)

The preposition from/of (de, du, des)

Question word for origin (d'où)

The verb to do/make (faire)

Days of the week (lundi, mardi)

Telling time (il est... heure)

Question words for time (quand, à quelle heure)

The verb to take or have (prendre)

The verb to drink (boire)

Partitive articles (du, de la, de l')

Zero quantity (pas de)

Expressions of quantity (un peu de, beaucoup de)

Asking how much or how many (combien, combien de)

Very vs. a lot (très, beaucoup)

The verb to want (vouloir)

Polite requests (je voudrais)

The verb to be able to (pouvoir)

Obligation (devoir)

General obligation (il faut)

Why and because (pourquoi, parce que)

Expressing purpose (pour)

Reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, nous, vous)

Daily routine verbs (se lever, s'habiller)

Adverbs of frequency (parfois, rarement)

Never (ne... jamais)

Regular -ir verbs (choisir, finir)

Regular -re verbs (attendre, répondre)

Irregular -ir verbs (sortir, partir, dormir)

Informal 'we' (on)

The imperative mood

Direct object pronouns (le, la, les, l')

The near future (aller + infinitive)

The recent past (venir de + infinitive)

The passé composé with avoir

Irregular past participles (eu, été, fait, pris, vu)

The passé composé with être

The negative passé composé (ne ... pas)

Saying goodbye

Please, sorry and thank you

Which / what (quel)

The indefinite adjective (tout, tous)

Irregular feminine adjectives (-euse, -ve)

Double consonant adjectives (-enne, -ette)

Feminine adjective endings (-ère, -trice)

Irregular plurals (-x)

Plurals ending in -al (-aux)

Present tense stem changes (e to è)

Accent stem changes (é to è)

Double consonant verbs (appeler, jeter)

Verbs ending in -yer (payer, envoyer)

Irregular communication verbs (dire, lire)

Irregular action verbs (écrire, mettre)

Question	Answer
the controversy	la polémique
disastrous	désastreux
The minister had resigned because of the disastrous controversy.	Le ministre avait démissionné à cause de la polémique désastreuse.
the spokesperson	le porte-parole
the reputation	la réputation
the statement	la déclaration
The spokesperson saved our reputation thanks to his statement.	Le porte-parole a sauvé notre réputation grâce à sa déclaration.
to manage	gérer
the image (f)	l'image
the press release	le communiqué
He managed his image well thanks to this press release.	Il a bien géré son image grâce à ce communiqué.
to worsen	aggraver
He worsened the scandal because of his statement.	Il a aggravé le scandale à cause de sa déclaration.
He is having the press release published because of the controversy.	Il fait publier le communiqué à cause de la polémique.
to reassure	rassurer
Although he is guilty, he reassures the press thanks to his spokesperson.	Bien qu'il soit coupable, il rassure la presse grâce à son porte-parole.
His image had become disastrous because of these rumors.	Son image était devenue désastreuse à cause de ces rumeurs.
Thanks to this director, we had managed our reputation well.	Grâce à ce directeur, nous avions bien géré notre réputation.
Because of this error, you worsened the crisis.	À cause de cette erreur, vous avez aggravé la crise.
Thanks to this press release, the team finally reassures the clients.	Grâce à ce communiqué, l'équipe rassure enfin les clients.
the cause	la cause
We are looking for the cause of the problem.	Nous cherchons la cause du problème.
The cause is easy to understand.	La cause est facile à comprendre.
with the help of	à l'aide de
He opened the box with the help of a knife.	Il a ouvert la boîte à l'aide d'un couteau.
She writes with the help of a computer.	Elle écrit à l'aide d'un ordinateur.

Contributors