French possession: d'un, de, etc. Hey, I recently asked myself how to say "the life of a cat" in French. I came to the conclusion that "la vie d'un chat" would not be too far off. I googled the phrase and came upon the movie title "Une vie de chat" from a 2010 movie, "A cat in Paris". Now, I'm a beginner, but I understand that 'de' is used to a similar effect to "of". As in, "a life of a cat". However, would it mean the same to say "la vie d'un chat" and "la vie de chat"? To my ears, one of them sounds like "the life of a cat", and the other "the life of THE cat". But is there any difference between the two? Now, I may be completely wrong here. Can someone help me how to differentiate between "of a" and "of the"? For example in the context of the two sentences: "The foreword of a book can be a token of respect by the author." "I read H.P. Lovecraft's most famous book. I didn't read that much of it yet, but the foreword of the book was well written." Merci!