Abstract: Prepositions in all languages represent a limitless field for research and comparisons. The function of prepositions is to express various relations of objective reality. The subject of the research of the presented article is a detailed description of the functioning of the component "beginning" in phraseological prepositions in Russian and the component "le début" in phraseological prepositions in French. Prepositions have been the subject of study by many linguists T.I. Antonova, N.I. Astafieva, O.S. Akhmanova, A.M. Babkin, M.V. Binkovskaya, R.V. Boldyrev, V.S. Bondarenko, N.I. Bukatevich, M.S. Bunina, M.V. Vsevolodova, L.N. Zasorina, G.A. Zolotova, E.G. Kulinich, Yu.I. Ledeneva, T.A. Panteleeva, R.P. Rogozhnikova, E.T. Cherkasova, G.A. Shiganova and others. The study is conducted in a comparative manner. The novelty of the research undertaken lies in the fact that phraseological prepositions with the component "beginning" in Russian and the component "le début" in French represent the beginning of an action or phenomenon, limitation, following and preceding in time. Empirical material shows that the productivity of the formation of phraseological prepositions with the meaning of temporality is quite high both in Russian and in French. Having analyzed the internal organization of phraseological prepositions with the studied component, we come to the conclusion that the Russian language has a greater variety of structural organization schemes than in French, with all its analyticity.