When ‘to’ means ‘from’ in French

The words ‘to’ and ‘from’ in French initially seem simple enough to grasp.

If you are talking about a journey from Paris to Lyon, you are probably comfortable using de Paris à Lyon, and if an event is from 14:00 to 18:00, it is de 14h à 18h.

Things become a little more complex when you are speaking about a gift from someone. In this context, most French speakers use de la part, so a present from your aunt would be un cadeau de la part de ma tante.

Even so, this still feels logical enough to English-speakers: ‘from’ (de) is the origin, and ‘to’ (à) is the destination.

However, let’s imagine that our neighbour Gérard is selling his car, and that Rose has bought it.

Rose a acheté la voiture de Gérard means that Rose bought Gérard’s car (la voiture de Gérard meaning ‘the car belonging to Gérard’).

But Rose a acheté la voiture à Gérard means that Rose bought the car from Gérard. Yes, the à in this context has transformed into our equivalent of ‘from’.

To be clear, acheter quelque chose à quelqu’un can mean ‘to buy from’. Even more confusingly, it can also mean ‘to buy for’.

Je vous ai acheté cette guitare can mean that I bought this guitar from you, or that I bought this guitar for you, and only context or previous knowledge will tell you the difference.

One final gem: what do you understand from the phrase j’ai acheté la guitare à Nancy?

Well, it could be that I bought the guitar from a person called Nancy, I bought it for someone called Nancy, or indeed that I bought it in the town of Nancy.

Isn’t French a rich and fascinating language?