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5.8: Structure - La préposition à

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    Objectif 

    In this section, you will learn about the preposition « à ».

    Media Alternative

    Listen to the audio clips that follow on this page to hear the French pronunciation of vocabulary and examples presented.

    On étudie !

    In French, the preposition à often means "to", "at", or "in", depending on the context. But it can also mean a variety of other things that you will learn throughout this book. For this section, we will focus on using à to talk about where people and things are located.

    We use this preposition to say where something or someone is located. This usually translates as "in", like à San Diego (in San Diego) or "at" like à la plage (at the beach).

    When it is followed by the masculine definite article le it must be contracted. Compare:

    Préposition à + article défini
    féminin masculin
    à la banque au théâtre
    à la gare au restaurant

    Note

    Depending on the context, au restaurant could mean "at the restaurant" or "in the restaurant".

    For cities, you only need the à. No definite article:

    à Paris à New York à Kinshasa

    Ressources supplémentaires

    Learn more about the difference between the prepositions dans, à, en and sur:

    On approfondit !

    Ressources en ligne

    Use the following resources to type accents and/or search for words:

    • Accents: ç, à, é, è, â, ê, î, ô, û, ù, ë, ï, ü 
    • Dictionnaire français-anglais

    Exercice 1 : préposition 'à' et contractions

    Exercice 2 : préposition 'à' et contractions

     

    5.8: Structure - La préposition à is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.