The 4 different prepositions we use in French for countries, states, provinces, cities and continents are: “en“, “au“, “aux” and “à“.
1. Countries, states and provinces
- First, we use the preposition “en” in front of feminine names or masculine which start with a vowel, for instance:
- En France (feminine) / In France
- En Équateur (masculine) / In Equator
- En Californie (feminine) / In California
- En Ontario (masculine) / In Ontario
Generally, country names ending in “e” are feminine but there are a couple of exceptions like “le Mexique”.
- We use the preposition “au” in front of masculine names that do not start with a vowel like:
- Au Portugal (masculine) / In Portugal
- Au Brésil (masculine) / In Brazil
- Au Texas (masculine) / In Texas
- Au Québec (masculine) / In Quebec
- Also, we use the preposition “aux” in front of plural names, for example:
- Aux États-Unis (plural) / In the United States
- Aux Pays-Bas (plural) / In the Netherlands
- Lastly, we use the preposition “à” in front of country names without an article like:
- À Malte / In Malta
- À Madagascar / In Madagascar
2. Cities
We also use the preposition “à“ in front of every city names, like:
- À Paris / In Paris
- À Sidney / In Sidney
3. Continents
To finish, we use the French preposition “en” in front of every continent, for example:
- En Asie / In Asia
- En Afrique / In Africa
Find my other post about French grammar here.
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