Note.—Particular attention should be paid to the prepositions da, de, and el, all of which are often translated by the English preposition "of." Note the following examples:—
Da.—Cento da pomoj = A hundred (of) apples. Dekduo da kuleroj = A dozen (of) spoons. Miliono da loĝantoj = A million (of) inhabitants. Kvar metroj da ŝtofo = Four metres of material. Ducent kilometroj da longo = Two hundred kilometres in (of) length.
De.—Tri estas duono de ses = Three is half of six. Ok estas kvar kvinonoj de dek = Eight is four-fifths of ten. La domo de mia frato = The house of my brother, or, My brother’s house. Doktoro de juro = A doctor of laws.
El.—Ĉiu el la infanoj = Each of the children. Unu el ni = One of us. Ni faru uzon el tio = Let us make use of that. Domo konstruita el ŝtono = A house built of stone. La plej bela floro el la ĝardeno = The most beautiful flower of the garden.
259 (8). De = Of, from, by.
De denotes origin, possession, place, time, cause, agency, and disconnection or abstraction. It serves to form the genitive or possessive case. These are all variations of the one primary idea: origin.
De is not used in speaking of places, etc., when English uses the preposition "of," where nomata = named might be inserted between two substantives.
Examples.—La urbo Londono = The City of London. La monato Julio = The month of July (par. [106] (d)).
Care must be taken not to confuse de with da.
Possession = Of.