No. 1 in French
de
"De" in French means "of" or "from" in English.
In a sentence
Il a besoin de sommeil.
He needs sleep.
Here, 'de' introduces the noun 'sommeil' following the phrase 'avoir besoin de', which traditionally pairs with 'de' to specify the requirement.
Ce livre est plein de mystères.
This book is full of mysteries.
'De' is used to indicate the contents (mysteries) of the adjective 'plein' (full).
Je voudrais une tasse de thé.
I would like a cup of tea.
The usage of 'de' links the noun 'tasse' (cup) with the content it holds ('thé', tea), representing composition or containment.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “de” in actual French podcasts.
Find “de” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays French podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into français, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
French books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).