FlexiLingoIn one line
àmarks a destination anddean origin — and almost every other use of the two grew out of those two meanings.
The forms on this page
| Form | Means | Sound |
|---|---|---|
à | to · at — a destination, or the point something arrives at | /a/ |
de | from · of — an origin, or what something comes out of | /də/ |
The table
| Meaning | à | de |
|---|---|---|
| place | destination — aller à Paris /a.le a pa.ʁi/ | origin — venir de Paris /və.niʁ də pa.ʁi/ |
| time | a point — à midi /a mi.di/ | a start — de 9h à 17h /də nœ.v‿œʁ a di.sɛ.t‿œʁ/ |
| possession | belonging to — C'est à moi. /sɛ.t‿a mwa/ | of — la voiture de Marie /la vwa.tyʁ də ma.ʁi/ |
| purpose and contents | what it is for — une tasse à café /yn tas a ka.fe/ | what is in it — une tasse de café /yn tas də ka.fe/ |
| distance | at — à 10 km /a di ki.lo.mɛtʁ/ | from — de Paris à Lyon /də pa.ʁi a ljɔ̃/ |
The two middle rows, two classic traps
Possession — both are used, and they are not the same:
| Meaning | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
la voiture de Marie | Marie's car — a descriptive relation | /la vwa.tyʁ də ma.ʁi/ |
Cette voiture est à Marie. | this car belongs to Marie — a statement | /sɛt vwa.tyʁ ɛ.t‿a ma.ʁi/ |
The rule:
degoes between two nouns,àgoes afterêtre.English uses the same two shapes — "Marie's car" and "this car is Marie's" — so the split is familiar; only the words change.
Purpose and contents — this difference genuinely changes the meaning:
| Meaning | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
une tasse à café | a coffee cup — what it is for | /yn tas a ka.fe/ |
une tasse de café | a cup of coffee — what is in it | /yn tas də ka.fe/ |
un verre à vin | a wine glass | /œ̃ vɛʁ a vɛ̃/ |
un verre de vin | a glass of wine | /œ̃ vɛʁ də vɛ̃/ |
une boîte aux lettres | a letterbox | /yn bwa.t‿o lɛtʁ/ |
une boîte de chocolats | a box of chocolates | /yn bwat də ʃo.ko.la/ |
English marks this too, and completely differently, which is why it slips past. English makes a compound noun for purpose — coffee cup, wine glass, letterbox — and uses "of" for contents — a cup of coffee, a glass of wine. French uses
àwhere English glues the nouns together, anddewhere English says "of".A test that works: if English would write it as one word or two nouns in a row, use
à. If English would say "of", usede.
à — everything it does
| Job | Example | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| destination | Je vais à l'école. | /ʒə vɛ.z‿a le.kɔl/ |
| a fixed location | Je suis à la maison. | /ʒə sɥi a la mɛ.zɔ̃/ |
| a city | à Paris à Toronto | /a pa.ʁi/ · /a to.ʁɔ̃.to/ |
| clock time | à trois heures | /a tʁwa.z‿œʁ/ |
possession with être | C'est à toi. | /sɛ.t‿a twa/ |
| recipient | Je parle à Marie. | /ʒə paʁl a ma.ʁi/ |
| purpose | une machine à laver | /yn ma.ʃi.n‿a la.ve/ |
| manner | à pied à vélo écrit à la main | /a pje/ · /a ve.lo/ · /e.kʁi a la mɛ̃/ |
| price | un menu à 15 euros | /œ̃ mə.ny a kɛ̃.z‿ø.ʁo/ |
| a distinguishing feature | une fille aux yeux bleus | /yn fij o.z‿jø blø/ |
de — everything it does
| Job | Example | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| origin | Je viens de Lyon. | /ʒə vjɛ̃ də ljɔ̃/ |
| possession | le livre de Paul | /lə livʁ də pɔl/ |
| material | une table en bois — or — de bois | |
| contents | une bouteille d'eau | /yn bu.tɛj do/ |
| quantity | beaucoup de temps | /bo.ku də tɑ̃/ |
| topic | parler de politique | /paʁ.le də po.li.tik/ |
| cause | mourir de faim | /mu.ʁiʁ də fɛ̃/ |
| a span | de lundi à vendredi | /də lœ̃.di a vɑ̃.dʁə.di/ |
| after a negative | Je n'ai pas de voiture. | /ʒə ne pa də vwa.tyʁ/ |
| before an infinitive | essayer de faire | /e.sɛ.je də fɛʁ/ |
When both appear in one sentence
This is normal and happens often:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
Je vais de Paris à Lyon. | from Paris to Lyon | /ʒə vɛ də pa.ʁi a ljɔ̃/ |
De 9h à 17h. | from 9 to 5 | /də nœ.v‿œʁ a di.sɛ.t‿œʁ/ |
Il parle de son travail à son ami. | he talks to his friend about his work | /il paʁl də sɔ̃ tʁa.vaj a sɔ̃.n‿a.mi/ |
beaucoup de livres à lire | a lot of books to read | /bo.ku də livʁz a liʁ/ |
Contracting with the article
Both fuse with le and les — and it is compulsory:
+ le | + la | + l' | + les | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
à /a/ | au /o/ | à la /a la/ | à l' /a ɛl/ | aux /o/ |
de /də/ | du /dy/ | de la /də la/ | de l' /də ɛl/ | des /de/ |
The detail is in au-du-des.
Examples
| English | French | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| I'm going to Paris. | Je vais à Paris. | /ʒə vɛ.z‿a pa.ʁi/ |
| I come from Lyon. | Je viens de Lyon. | /ʒə vjɛ̃ də ljɔ̃/ |
| Paul's book. | Le livre de Paul. | /lə livʁ də pɔl/ |
| It's yours. | C'est à toi. | /sɛ.t‿a twa/ |
| A cup of coffee. | Une tasse de café. | /yn tas də ka.fe/ |
| A coffee cup. | Une tasse à café. | /yn tas a ka.fe/ |
| I work from 9 to 5. | Je travaille de 9h à 17h. | /ʒə tʁa.vaj də nœ.v‿œʁ a di.sɛ.t‿œʁ/ |
| I don't have a car. | Je n'ai pas de voiture. | /ʒə ne pa də vwa.tyʁ/ |
| The girl with blue eyes. | La fille aux yeux bleus. | /la fij o zjø blø/ |
| I'm going on foot. | Je vais à pied. | /ʒə vɛ.z‿a pje/ |
Common mistakes
| ❌ | ✅ | Why |
|---|---|---|
la voiture à Marie (in writing) | la voiture de Marie | Between two nouns it is de |
C'est de moi. | C'est à moi. | Possession with être → à |
Je viens à Paris for origin | Je viens de Paris. | Origin is de |
une tasse de café for an empty cup | une tasse à café | Purpose is à |
à le magasin | au magasin | The contraction is compulsory |
Je n'ai pas une voiture. | … pas de voiture. | After a negative it is de |
The first one has a subtlety:
la voiture à Marieis heard in colloquial speech and everyone understands it, but in writing and in exams it counts as an error.
Why these two do so much work
when the noun cases went, two prepositions took over
Latin had six noun cases, each doing a job: possession, recipient, instrument, origin.
In French they all collapsed, and the language had to do their work with prepositions. Two prepositions took most of the load:
| Latin case | Its job | French replacement |
|---|---|---|
genitivus /ʒə.ni.ti.vy/ | possession | de /də/ |
dativus /da.ti.vy/ | recipient | à /a/ |
ablativus /a.bla.ti.vy/ | origin, instrument | de /də/ |
The result: de and à took over the work of three Latin cases, which is why they are so frequent and so many-sided. In French text, de is the single most common word in the language.
And that explains why they contract: a word appearing every few seconds wears down and fuses with the next one. de le became du, à les became aux.
English did exactly the same thing with "of" and "to." Old English had cases; they collapsed; "of" took over possession and "to" took over the recipient. That is why de ≈ "of" and à ≈ "to" works so often — the two languages solved the same problem the same way, at roughly the same time.
Where it breaks is where English kept a shortcut. English preserved the old possessive ending as -'s — "Marie**'s** car" — so it has two ways of saying what French says only with de. And English built compound nouns — "coffee cup" — where French needs à. Those two shortcuts are exactly the places this page warns about.
The practical point: if you are stuck, ask yourself "towards, or from?" That answers most cases. And for verbs, memorise the preposition with the verb — see verbe-prepositions.