French place prepositions: à, en, au, aux and de

First decide whether you mean location or destination, or origin. Then identify the kind of place: city, country, ordinary building or someone’s home. French does not choose the preposition only from the English word “in” or “to”. à Lyon can mean either “in Lyon” or “to Lyon”, depending on the verb; de Lyon expresses origin or departure.

The main country patterns describe location and destination alike. You do not change en France to another preposition merely because the person starts moving. Origin is the contrasting relationship: de France. To learn a place efficiently, record a three-part set: la France, en France, de France or le Canada, au Canada, du Canada.

Use à for location or destination and de/dû for origin with most city names. Most cities have no article in these expressions: à Paris, de Paris, à Rome, de Rome. Before a vowel, de elides: d’Avignon. The preposition à does not elide before a vowel.

Some city names include an article. With Le Havre, à + le gives au Havre and de + le gives du Havre. With La Rochelle, la remains. Treat the article as part of the name rather than assuming every city follows the no-article pattern. Regional or established alternatives also exist for some names, but à is the useful general starting point.

Use en with feminine singular countries and masculine singular countries beginning with a vowel, au with masculine singular countries beginning with a consonant, and aux with plural countries. The country’s grammatical form matters, so learn la France, le Canada, l’Iran and les États-Unis alongside the place name itself.

Many country names ending in written -e are feminine, but the ending is only a clue. Le Mexique, le Mozambique and le Cambodge are masculine, so say au Mexique, au Mozambique and au Cambodge. Do not decide from the real-world place or its English name. When learning a new country, check its French article and the established prepositional phrase.

For origin, use de/dû with feminine countries and the usual masculine vowel-initial pattern, du with masculine consonant-initial countries and des with plural countries. This is not a mechanical replacement of every en by du. Use the country’s full destination-and-origin pair until the pattern becomes familiar.

A phrase with venir de can describe someone’s home origin or the place they have just travelled from; context supplies the distinction. With a following infinitive, however, venir de forms the recent past: je viens de partir means “I’ve just left”. That de belongs to a different construction. Read what follows it before deciding that it names a geographical origin.

The compulsory contractions are à + le → au, à + les → aux, de + le → du and de + les → des. With la and l’, keep the words separate. These forms work with ordinary places such as a station, museum or hotel, as well as with place names that take the relevant article.

Do not write à le musée or de les toilettes. Also distinguish contracted du from partitive du: je reviens du marché means “from the market”, while j’achète du pain names an unspecified amount of bread. The same spelling can serve different grammatical jobs. Country en France is a specific geographical pattern; it does not license en musée for “at the museum”.

Some country and island names use an established phrase that must be learned individually, often because they are normally used without an article. Common examples include à Cuba, à Madagascar and en Israël. Island names do not all follow one rule, so avoid replacing the country patterns with a general “all islands take à” shortcut.

Use a dictionary or an established French source when a new island or territory does not fit a familiar set. For beginner communication, a small accurate collection of the places you actually mention is more useful than a long exception list. The country-article and country-preposition pages are the best next steps when gender or an unusual place name is the source of hesitation.

Use chez for a person’s home or a professional identified as a person, and dans when you need to specify being inside a space. Use à for many ordinary institutions and destinations. The distinction can reflect how you frame the location: à la banque identifies the place or institution; dans la banque explicitly puts someone inside the building.

For transport, learn the separate expressions en train, en voiture, à pied and à vélo. The transport phrase tells you how someone travels; the destination still needs its own preposition: je vais à Lyon en train. The related transport, location and y pages let you extend a destination sentence without mixing these different relationships.

The common errors are applying à to every destination, forgetting contractions and using a destination form for origin. Identify the relationship first, then the place’s article, and check exceptions only where the ordinary pattern does not fit.

• Je vais en Paris.Je vais à Paris.

  Most city names use à for location or destination.

• Elle habite au France.Elle habite en France.

  France is feminine, so use en France.

• Nous allons à le Canada.Nous allons au Canada.

  Canada uses au, the contraction of à + le.

• Il revient de Canada.Il revient du Canada.

  Origin with masculine consonant-initial Canada uses du.

• Je vais à Léa.Je vais chez Léa.

  For going to a person’s home, use chez.