Prepositions with countries and cities
The short answer
Cities take à: à Paris, à Tokyo. Countries depend on gender. Feminine countries: almost all those ending in -e: take en: en France, en Italie. Masculine countries take au: au Portugal, au Japon. Plural countries take aux: aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas.
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The rule
French chooses the preposition by what kind of place it is and, for countries, by grammatical gender. Cities take à for both being there and going there. Countries ending in -e are feminine and take en; the rest are masculine and take au; plural names take aux. The same forms cover going and being, so there is no separate motion rule to learn. Coming from a place uses de, and it follows the same gender pattern with its own contractions.
| Form | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Cities | àcity | Je vis à Lisbonne. |
| Feminine countries | encountryno article | en France, en Espagne, en Chine |
| Masculine countries | aucountry | au Portugal, au Canada, au Brésil |
| Plural countries | auxcountry | aux États-Unis, aux Philippines |
| Masculine starting with a vowel | endespite being masculine | en Iran, en Israël, en Angola |
| Coming from | de / du / des | de France, du Japon, des Pays-Bas |
Part 1 of 3
The gender rule
Countries ending in -e are feminine, and there are five well-known exceptions that are masculine anyway: le Mexique, le Cambodge, le Mozambique, le Zimbabwe and le Belize. Everything else ending in -e takes en.
Countries not ending in -e are masculine and take au: au Maroc, au Danemark, au Sénégal. Plurals take aux, and the list of those is short enough to learn outright: les États-Unis, les Pays-Bas, les Philippines, les Émirats arabes unis.
Elle travaille en Allemagne depuis deux ans.
She’s worked in Germany for two years.
Nous allons au Maroc en avril.
We’re going to Morocco in April.
Il a étudié aux Pays-Bas.
He studied in the Netherlands.
NBPlural name, so aux, and note the plural verb agreement elsewhere: les Pays-Bas sont…
Part 2 of 3
Cities, and the vowel exception
Cities take à with no article at all: à Rome, à Berlin, à Dakar. A handful carry an article as part of their name and contract accordingly: au Caire, au Havre, à La Rochelle, à La Haye.
Masculine countries beginning with a vowel take en rather than au, purely for pronunciation: en Iran, en Israël, en Ouganda, en Angola. Au Iran would collide two vowels, which French avoids everywhere.
Je passe trois jours à Bruxelles.
I’m spending three days in Brussels.
Il est né au Caire.
He was born in Cairo.
NBLe Caire keeps its article, so à + le contracts.
Ils vivent en Iran.
They live in Iran.
Part 3 of 3
Coming from
De follows the same gender logic. Feminine countries take plain de with no article: je viens de France, de Belgique. Masculine countries take du: du Japon, du Portugal. Plurals take des: des États-Unis.
Cities take de as well, and elide before a vowel: de Paris, d’Athènes. Cities with an article contract like anything else: du Caire, du Havre.
Elle rentre d’Italie demain.
She’s coming back from Italy tomorrow.
Ce fromage vient du Danemark.
This cheese comes from Denmark.
Un vol en provenance des États-Unis.
A flight arriving from the United States.
Mistakes to avoid
What learners actually get wrong
Je vais à France.
Je vais en France.
À is for cities; countries take en, au or aux by gender. This is the first and most frequent error in the topic, because à feels like the general-purpose preposition for going somewhere.
au Espagne
en Espagne
Espagne ends in -e, so it is feminine and takes en. Applying the masculine form to a feminine country is what the gender rule exists to prevent, and the -e ending predicts it almost perfectly.
en Portugal
au Portugal
Portugal does not end in -e, so it is masculine. It is the country learners most often get wrong, probably because it sits next to Spain both geographically and in most sentences.
Je viens de le Japon.
Je viens du Japon.
De plus le always contracts to du, exactly as elsewhere in French. The country rule does not suspend the ordinary contractions. It works with them.
Now use it
Prépositions à, de, en, dans
Places, times and the au / du / aux contractions. Reading a rule and being able to apply it are different skills, and only one of them shows up when you speak.
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Questions
Asked and answered
- What about French regions and US states?
- Regions follow the same gender logic: en Bretagne, en Normandie, dans le Nord. States are less consistent, en Californie and en Floride are feminine, but au Texas and dans le Colorado are masculine, and dans l’État de New York is the safe form when you are unsure.
- Is there a rule for islands?
- Not a reliable one, which is why they have to be learned individually: à Cuba, à Madagascar, en Corse, en Sicile, aux Maldives. Large islands that are also countries tend to behave like countries; small ones tend to take à.
- Does the same preposition cover going and being?
- Yes, and this is the part that surprises English speakers most. Je vais en France and je suis en France use the same word, where English switches between to and in. French only changes the preposition for coming from.