French contractions: ‘le’ and ‘la’ with ‘de’ and ‘à’
Okay, last one on grammar for a while. If you haven’t already, go ahead and read an introduction to masculine and feminine, so you have a firm understanding of le, la and les.
This is the last lesson in a short series on gender in French. Once you understand that every noun is either masculine or feminine, you’ll want to know how to apply this knowledge within a sentence.
The prepositions à and de (meaning ‘to’/'at’ and ‘of’/'from’ respectively) are two of the most common you’ll encounter in French. Let’s make sure you know how to use them correctly with their companions, le, la, and les.
à
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à + la = à la
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- e.g. - Je vais à la banque. [I'm going to the bank.]
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Because ‘bank’ is feminine (la banque), à la is used.
à + le = au
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- e.g. - Il est au parc. [He is at the park.]
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Because ‘park’ is masculine (le parc), au is used.
à + l’ + à l’
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- e.g. - Elle travaille à l’usine. [She works at the factory.]
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Remember, before a vowel, both le and la become l’.
à + les = aux
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- e.g. - La maîtresse parle aux élèves. [The teacher speaks to the students.]
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In the case of plural nouns, gender no longer applies to the article (les).
de
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de + la = de la
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- e.g. - C’est le sac de la prof. [It's the professor's bag. (Lit. It's the bag of the professor.)]
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In French, there is no equivalent to our ‘apostrophe s,’ so you must say, ‘it is the [blank] of [someone/something].’ In this case, we see that the professor (la prof) is feminine.
de + le = du
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- e.g. - Il vient du Canada. [He comes from Canada.]
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In French, all countries take an article (le or la). Canada is masculine (le Canada), so we use du in this example.
de + l’ = de l’
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- e.g. - Elle vient de l’Angleterre. [She comes from England.]
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Again, any noun (masculine or feminine) that begins with a vowel changes the le or la to l’.
de + les = des
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- Ils viennent des États-Unis. [They come from the United States.]
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As in English, the ‘United States’ are plural in French (les États-Unis), so with de, it becomes des.
In the introduction to masculine and feminine, I went over le, la and les (all words for ‘the’), as well as un and une (the masculine and feminine for ‘a’).
What I didn’t go over was ’some,’ the plural of ‘a.’
In French, the word ’some’ is same as ‘of the’ and ‘from the’: de la, du, de l’, and des. As I’ve already gone over construction above, I will simply give examples here.
- e.g. - Je voudrais du fromage. [I would like some cheese.]
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- e.g. - Il a des fraises. [He has some strawberries.]
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- e.g. - Elle achète de la farine. [She's buying some flour.]
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- e.g. - Tu veux de l’oignon? [Do you want some onion?]
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Related Posts:
- Introduction to masculine and feminine in French
- Gendered pronouns: ‘my,’ ‘your,’ ‘his’ and ‘her’
- Gender exceptions: pronouns ‘your,’ ‘our,’ and ‘their’
Anne has studied and spoken French for over a decade and has lived in both France and Francophone Cameroon. She strives to write lessons that reflect her real experiences and represent the way people really speak.
