As far as I understand that "de" is used to give more information. And "de + le" = "du".
so why it's 'de taxi' not 'du taxi' ?
PS : I am not sure if I picked up the right question tags.
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De is quite complex as it can be a preposition or an article and can be contracted. See this for more information.– Un francophoneOct 26, 2016 at 9:29
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1 Answer
Une station de taxi is not dedicated to a single taxi, there are plenty of potential taxis that might use it so that can't be du taxi (i.e. de le taxi). If you are in a small village where there is a single station for a single taxi, you might say la station du taxi.
It is not either une station des taxis because station is preceded by an indefinite article, an indefinite station is unlikely to be the one of specific taxis, however, la station des taxis is technically possible in the latter case, e.g. la station des taxis de banlieue.
Finally, as you are talking about a station dedicated to taxis, the preposition de is used. It introduces a relationship between a concrete noun (station) and a generic collective (taxi). This construction uses no article (a.k.a. article zéro), thus une station de taxi.
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Can we say it's the same than when saying "taxi rank" in English, and not "rank for the taxi"? Or even "nourriture pour chien" ("dog food") instead of "nourriture pour le chien" (food for the dog")?– DestalOct 26, 2016 at 8:56
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@SimonDéchamps Yes. in English, "taxi rank" or "rank for taxi operators" which is using "article zero". "Nourriture pour chien" is also doing it.– jlliagreOct 26, 2016 at 10:45
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technically "une station du taxi" can make sense if we are talking about a special taxi which stops in several stations. Each of these stations would be "une station du taxi" (one of the stations of the cab) Oct 27, 2016 at 15:15
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@AnneAunyme Yes, it makes sense if such a taxi exists. I would probably say "l'une des stations du taxi" though.– jlliagreOct 28, 2016 at 0:08