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'Remplir de', 'entouré de': when English 'with' and 'by' become 'de'

In English you fill a glass with water and a village is surrounded by mountains. French uses one small word for both: de. You say remplir un verre d'eau and un village entouré de montagnes. The same goes for a train bondé de touristes, a region that regorge de vignobles and a shirt trempé de sueur.

English speakers tend to translate word for word and write remplir avec de l'eau or entouré par des montagnes. A French reader will understand you, but it sounds clumsy or even means something slightly different. Once you see the logic behind de, these words become easy to use.

Word list
bondémA2 crowded bondé de touristes = packed with tourists mouillémA2 wet les yeux mouillés de larmes = eyes wet with tears pleinmA2 full plein de fautes = full of mistakes remplirA2 to fill remplir un verre d'eau = fill a glass with water entourerB2 to surround entouré d'amis = surrounded by friends inonderB2 to flood inondé de lumière = flooded with light surchargémB2 overcrowded surchargé de travail = overloaded with work trempémB2 soaked trempé de sueur = soaked with sweat aspergerC1 to spray asperger quelqu'un d'eau = spray someone with water imbibémC1 soaked imbibé de rhum = soaked in rum regorgerC1 to abound regorger de vignobles = teem with vineyards
How it works

Think of the English phrase full of. Whatever fills, covers or surrounds something is its content, and French introduces content with de. Plein de works exactly like full of, and words with similar meanings such as filling, soaking, flooding or surrounding follow the same model, even when English switches to with or by.

There are two shapes:

Action

Verb + thing + de + content: remplir la carafe d'eau, asperger quelqu'un d'eau.

Result or state

être + adjective or participle + de + content: être entouré d'amis, être inondé de lumière.

Notice one more detail: when the content is general, de stands alone, with no article. You say rempli d'eau, not rempli de l'eau, and plein de fautes, not plein des fautes. Before a vowel, de becomes d'.

Remplis la carafe d'eau, s'il te plaît.
(Fill the jug with water, please.)
Ton devoir est plein de fautes d'orthographe.
(Your homework is full of spelling mistakes.)
The words
Crowded and teeming

Bondé describes a place packed with people, and regorger means to teem or overflow with something. Both take de for what is there in large numbers.

Le métro était bondé de supporters après le match.
(The metro was packed with fans after the match.)
La région regorge de vignobles et de petits villages.
(The region teems with vineyards and little villages.)
Surrounding

Entourer is mostly used as être entouré de for something that is simply there around you.

Le village est entouré de montagnes.
(The village is surrounded by mountains.)
Pour son anniversaire, elle voulait être entourée d'amis.
(For her birthday, she wanted to be surrounded by friends.)
Liquids and floods

Trempé and imbibé both mean soaked: trempé is everyday and often about people and clothes, imbibé is about something that has absorbed a liquid. Inonder (to flood) and asperger (to spray) are verbs, and the liquid or the flood follows de.

Il est rentré du footing trempé de sueur.
(He came back from his run soaked with sweat.)
Ce gâteau est imbibé de rhum.
(This cake is soaked in rum.)
Le matin, la cuisine est inondée de lumière.
(In the morning, the kitchen is flooded with light.)
Les enfants m'ont aspergé d'eau dans la piscine.
(The children sprayed me with water in the pool.)

Many other words work the same way: couvert de (covered with), rempli de (filled with), chargé de (loaded with) and orné de (decorated with).

Watch out
Avec is for tools

Use avec for the instrument you fill something with, not for the content itself.

Elle remplit la bouteille d'huile avec un entonnoir.
(She fills the bottle with oil using a funnel.)
Par is for someone doing something

Entouré par exists, but it describes a deliberate action by an agent, like police surrounding a building. For something that is simply around you, stick to de.

La banque a été entourée par la police.
(The bank was surrounded by the police.)
Made up of is a different case

Composition expressions such as être composé de and se composer de also use de, but that simply matches English of. Two common verbs break the pattern and take en: consister en (to consist of) and abonder en (to abound in), as in ce lac abonde en poissons.

Summary

When something is filled, soaked, flooded, crowded or surrounded, the content comes after de, just like full of: remplir un verre d'eau, entouré de montagnes, trempé de sueur. Keep avec for tools and par for a person actively doing something, and leave out the article when the content is general.