With
Contents
[hide]bound morpheme
- within: en l'espace de, can be used temporally or, less often, spatially.
- without: the opposite of with
- withdraw: take out, remove (v.)
- withhold: hold back (v.) (retenir, refuser)
Some more formal words:
- wherewithal: capacité (financière) (les moyens)
- forthwith: tout de suite
preposition
semantics / case
There are four common meanings for syntactic units introduced by with: the difference between instrument, means, and manner arguments is a continuum. Calling an instrument a means is surely never wrong. It is interesting to note that it is quite frequent to be able to replace "with" by "in" for with-instrument or with-means, but not for with-manner or with-accompaniment.
accompagnement
- We're going with them.
- OK, good, this time the brass will play with us and not against us. (with v. against)
- The old woman with the poodle over there, she said...
- The old woman over there, yeah, the one without a poodle, she said...
participation
- She's been talking with her mother again.
- They've been working with a language school.
- She's struggling with chemo.
- Fighting with the system might be more productive than fighting against the system.
instrument argument
- She watched the boy with the telescope.
An often-cited case: it is difficult to be certain without context whether she was using the telescope to watch a boy who had no telescope, or if she was watching someone who in turn had a telescope. Changing the determiner from "the" to "her" significantly orients the reading towards an instrument argument. (through the telescope)
- You can touch up your CV with OpenOffice, or in Word if you prefer. Some prefer LateX.
means argument
(complément de moyen)
- The kids were covering the table with flowers.
- Her face was covered with chocolate.
(Note that in can also be used here, for a more indifferentiated view of the flowers, and a similar view on the chocolate)
manner argument
She proofread the letter with care. You may not understand the first time around, but with patience, you'll get the hang of it.