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Mon bureau est loin du couloir.

Mon bureau est loin du couloir.
My office is far from the hallway.
From Lesson 92:Complex prepositions of location (près de, à côté de)·French

Questions & Answers about Mon bureau est loin du couloir.

Why does this sentence say loin du instead of loin de?
The phrase for 'far from' is loin de. However, couloir (hallway) is a masculine noun, so we need the masculine word for 'the', which is le. In French, the words de and le must always contract into du.
If I wanted to say 'close to the hallway' instead, would I still use du?
Yes! The phrase for 'close to' or 'near' is près de. Because you are still talking about the masculine le couloir, the de and le will combine again. You would say: Mon bureau est près du couloir.
Doesn't bureau usually mean 'desk'?
Yes, un bureau translates to 'a desk', but it is also the standard French word for 'an office'. You can usually tell which one it means from the context of the sentence!
How do I know to use mon instead of ma for 'my' here?
You always look at the gender of the noun being owned. Bureau is a masculine noun, so you must use the masculine possessive adjective mon, regardless of whether you identify as male or female.

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