auprès de

[alan gould]

1.  when it means “next to, close to” i see no difference with "près."  dictionary examples: 

Tu peux t'asseoir auprès de la fenêtre.

Elle veut déménager pour être auprès de ses amis.      

2.  when it means “compared to.”  is it any different from “par rapport à”, “en comparaison de”, or “à côté de”?  

example given: Je suis pauvre auprès de cette famille.      

3.  the dictionary says “in the view of” is another meaning.  i prefer “in the eyes of”  

from a blog: “...de prouver mes qualités auprès de clients potentiels” 

4.  i have a problem translating the following dictionary example: 

Il est paresseux auprès de ses collègues.  To me, it could mean “He's lazy in his colleagues' opinion” or it could mean “compared to his colleagues.”  

5.  in this dictionary example, i’m thinking “in the eyes of” (kind of “chez”): 

Il jouit d'une grande popularité auprès des jeunes. 

6.  In this dictionary example, i’m thinking “chez” the X dept.  I would therefore think that “addressez-vous auprès X dept." is a common usage.  

Adressez-vous auprès des services compétents.  Apply to the appropriate department.  

7.  dictionary example: “Selon une étude réalisée auprès de 8000 jeunes âgés de douze à dix-huit ans.” again, i’m thinking “chez”        

likewise: 

Le Parti travailliste avait perdu tout attrait auprès de (“chez” or “in the eyes of”) ses propres adhérents    

8.  dictionary example: “attaché financier auprès de l'ambassade de France.”  at first i thought “chez” but i see “(=au service de) with” as another definition.  

i'll continue with set expressions in a follow-up entry 

[Vedas]

Hello,

1-

près de and auprès de express both the idea of proximity 

Il demeure près de l'église

La rivière passe auprès de cette ville

but auprès de is used in a space context  or with the figurative sense of "in the opinion of" or "compared to" whereas près de can be used to express the idea of space/time/degree/number

-il y a près d'une heure que j'attends

-ils étaient près de cinquante

-rien n'est si près de la sottise que la vanité

2- Yes it means the same that à coté de/ en comparaison de

There is also another equivalent and litterary phrase : au prix de 

Qu'est ce que la vérité, pensais-je, au prix de l'amitié?

- 4/ you're right both translations are possible .

-5/7 / right, but correct french we should avoid saying "chez les jeunes" althought it is very used.

Chez comes from the latin casa (house) and it is supposed to convey the idea of a house:

chez les grands parents, chez le coiffeur...

-6/8 here is more or less the idea of space

Adressez vous/Veuillez vous adresser auprès de is indeed a common usage (go to / apply to)

Je vais me retourner auprès de mes avocats ( I'm going to ask my lawyers about it)

[Neil Coffey]

Thanks for your comments on the various uses.

Side issue regarding your comment on "chez les jeunes...", in practice I think it is really a common use of "chez" that is widely used and considered acceptable by authors generally.

If you follow that line of reasoning in all cases, you'll end up never saying anything: few if any words have an absolutely fixed form and meaning for the duration of their history. Just because a particular word had a particular meaning 2,000 years ago isn't really a very compelling reason for expecting it to have the same meaning 2,000 years later when the language has evolved so far that it is effectively another language anyway. And if you are (presumably) comfortable with the idea that the word has changed from a noun into a preposition-- a fairly major change-- why then worry about fiddly details of a shift in meaning rather than just decrying the entire word because it has completely changed from its "supposed" form and word type? And if you follow the 'history' logic, what's so special about Latin anyway? Why not insist that the meaning is "supposed" to be the meaning that "casa" had in a pre-Latin stage of its history? How do you define what the time period was when the "supposed" meaning was fixed in stone (and why would one care about trying to do so anyway)...?

[Vedas]

Hello,

I'm not defending the idea myself, I use it too and I said" in correct french" (the preposition "in" didn't print up , sorry my keyboard keeps acting up, and I must confess that my cat often lies on it...) and I meant in writing in essay or articles for instance and I should have said according to some like le Littré as it is well accepted by Grevisse. I was not giving my personal opinion, I'll try to specify it next time.

[alan gould]

thanks for the very informative help.  i'm still uncertain about the usage to mean "near."   In the first 2 examples you gave, i at first envisioned the house being closer to the church than the river is to the city.  maybe that's what you mean in terms of "space."  i can't discern a difference.  At this point, i'm content to always use "près" but to understand "auprès."   With regard to time and numbers, I will always be correct to use " près" is what i believe you're saying and would like confirmed.           

 

[Vedas]

Yes you'll make no mistakes in using près de as I mentioned , if you're not at ease in using auprès de in a space context it doesn't matter I mean in conversation most people would say près de .

Now as to know if there is a difference in terms of distance between près de and auprès de is quite hard to tell, as a whole both express relative distances and it will thus mostly depend on the context .

Intuitively I'd say that auprès de might be closer than près de but it is just a hunch

we could as well say :

la rivière passe près de cette ville. without being more informed about the distance...

Just for fun I think that there is another Belgian usage of auprès de :

Viens auprès de ta mère - (give  mummy a hug/ come into mum's arms)