Pré ou post ?

Hi everyone,

The other day in one of the Polyglot Cafés, somebody asked this weird question about the preposition used with "to cover".

My suggestion was "with"!

The response came: "in"!
I was just stunned stating my doubt which generated a : "Yes, yes".


Back in front of my computer, I could examine the point better.

First of all, to cover is transitive so that the complements with a preposition are secondary and varied.
My dictionary displays 12 meanings.
Among the twelve, I mainly saw the preposition "with": to cover sth with sth; the French translations are "couvrir" or "recouvrir", the prepositions are "avec" or "de".
eg to cover one's face with cream; to cover sb's face with kisses

1. (to conceal or protect)
   
2. (coat)
   
3. (be strewn over)
   
4. (travel over)
   
5. (deal with, include)
   
6. (report on)
   
7. (pay for)
   
8. insurance
   
9. military, Sport (protect)
   
10. (conceal)
    
11. music (make version of)
    
12. zoology (mate with)

Prepositions may be different in the passive forum "is covered".
In very specific cases, I could find "in" or "on" -
eg everything got covered with ou in sand; the animal is covered in scales;
eg to be covered in glory = être couvert de gloire
eg we covered a lot of miles on holiday (this is very specific - the time domain takes precedence with its "on")
eg the game will be covered live on BBC1 (specific as well - channel takes precedence too)
eg (for, against contre; for doing pour faire) the insurance domain is specific too

There's also: reflexive verb to cover oneself se protéger (against contre; by doing en faisant); to cover oneself with se couvrir de [glory, praise, shame].
Regarding glory, a previous example showed "in", here "with"!! unclear!!

My personal conclusion is definitely "with" with a few specific exceptions.

~~

I understand the mistake...

The person surely confused with the phrasal verb "to cover in".

• cover in = cover over.
• cover over:
¶ cover over [sth], cover [sth] over couvrir [passage, yard, area, pool] (with avec); recouvrir [painting, mark, stain] (with de).

This phrasal verb uses the "with" preposition.

Well!

to cover has got 4 phrasal verbs which are in fact "false phrasal verbs", I mean that the particles do have their usual meaning and the verbs don't have completely different meanings...

• to cover for
  
• to cover in = to cover over
  
• to cover over
  
• to cover up

The meanings of the 4 are very similar, the translations being couvrir, recouvrir, se couvrir, étouffer, remplacer, cacher, dissimuler.


Sorry!
I'll see this with the person next week but in my opinion, they confused preposition with particle of a phrasal verb.

True that it can sometimes be dodgy.

Do, tell me what you think.

Hello Gérard, hello everyone
Yes it's a bit dodgy. I have just the feeling that "cover in " is used figuratively and "cover with" literally. I might be wrong.

Hi G and M,

So, my "two cents worth" ... this means my opinion !

for "cover in", one must be covered in something eg mud, water, vomit

for "cover over", I would say one is concealing something eg cover over dirt on the sofa with a cushion, or cover over children's drawings on the salon wall with a new coat of paint

for "cover with", I would say you must use it reflexively, eg cover yourself with a blanket, cover the baby's head with a bonnet ... so cover someone with something

Krystyna,

Can't you say a baby is covered over with mud when he is really dirty?