French Prepositions: The Complete Guide

Ask a French speaker whether you're à la maison (at home) or dans la maison (in the house) and you'll get a shrug -- both are correct, just for slightly different situations. Swap the wrong preposition into a different sentence, though, and something that should sound effortless instead comes out sounding like it limped out of a translation app. That's the trap hiding inside French prepositions: tiny one-syllable words that almost never map cleanly onto a single English "equivalent," no matter how solid the rest of your grammar is.

French prepositions matter because they're everywhere -- in the address you give a taxi driver, the text where you explain you're "at work," the sentence where you mention you're traveling "to Spain" next month. English speakers reach for one preposition per idea ("in," "at," "to") and expect it to work every time. French prepositions don't behave that way: the right choice depends on whether you're naming a country or a city, a place or a person's home, a location or a destination. Learn the system instead of translating word by word, and a whole category of small, constant mistakes disappears.

Prepositions of Place: À, Dans, Sur, Sous, Chez

These five words cover most everyday descriptions of where something or someone is, and each one does a specific job that doesn't fully line up with English "in," "on," or "at."

Key Phrases

• à (ah) — at, to
• dans (dahn) — in, inside
• sur (soor) — on, on top of
• sous (soo) — under, beneath
• chez (shay) — at the home or place of

[AUDIO: chez moi] [AUDIO: dans la maison]

Grammar Note

Chez has no direct English translation -- it always points to a person's home, office, or shop, never a plain location. Chez moi means "at my place," chez le dentiste means "at the dentist's office," and there's no way to build either sentence with à or dans instead.

• Common mistake: using à la maison de Marie instead of the much more natural chez Marie for "at Marie's place."
• Common mistake: mixing up à (buildings, cities, general "at") with dans (specifically "inside" an enclosed space) -- je suis à l'école (I'm at school) versus je suis dans la salle de classe (I'm inside the classroom).

Naming Countries and Cities: À, En, Au, Aux

Talking about being in, or going to, a place doesn't use one all-purpose word the way English uses "in" or "to" -- French sorts places into categories, and each category takes its own preposition.

Key Phrases

• à Paris (ah pah-ree) — in/to Paris (cities take à)
• en France (ahn frahns) — in/to France (feminine countries take en)
• au Japon (oh zhah-pohn) — in/to Japan (masculine countries take au)
• aux États-Unis (oh zay-tah-zew-nee) — in/to the United States (plural countries take aux)

[AUDIO: en France] [AUDIO: au Japon]

Grammar Note

Most countries ending in -e are feminine and take en (en Espagne, en Chine), while most other countries are masculine and take au (au Canada, au Brésil). Plural-named countries take aux.

• Common mistake: assuming every country follows the -e rule -- le Mexique ends in -e but is masculine, so it's au Mexique, not en Mexique.
• Common mistake: using en for a city -- cities almost always take à, regardless of gender: à Londres, à Tokyo, à Montréal.

The Sneaky Contractions: Au, Aux, Du, Des

Two of the prepositions above -- à and de -- refuse to sit next to the definite articles le and les. Instead, they fuse into a single word, and this fusion shows up constantly, in sentences that have nothing to do with location.

Grammar Note

À and de contract with le and les, but never with la or l'.

• à + le → au (je vais au cinéma — I'm going to the movies)
• à + les → aux (je parle aux enfants — I'm talking to the children)
• de + le → du (je reviens du marché — I'm coming back from the market)
• de + les → des (la couleur des murs — the color of the walls)
• Common mistake: writing "à le" or "de le" as two separate words -- French never allows that combination; it must contract to au or du.
• Common mistake: contracting à la or de la -- feminine and vowel-starting nouns keep the article as its own word: à la gare, de l'hôtel.

Native speakers don't think of au or du as a shortcut -- they're simply the only correct form. Writing à le musée instead of au musée sounds as clearly wrong to a French ear as "a apple" does to an English one.

Verbs That Demand a Specific Preposition: À or De

A large group of everyday French verbs need a fixed preposition -- à or de -- before the infinitive that follows, and there's no shortcut from the English translation, since English usually just says "to" no matter which French preposition is actually required.

Key Phrases

• commencer à (koh-mahn-say ah) — to start to
• réussir à (ray-oo-seer ah) — to succeed in, to manage to
• décider de (day-see-day duh) — to decide to
• essayer de (eh-say-yay duh) — to try to

[AUDIO: commencer à] [AUDIO: essayer de]

Grammar Note

J'apprends à nager (I'm learning to swim) uses à, while j'essaie de comprendre (I'm trying to understand) uses de, and nothing in the English "to" gives that away.

• Common mistake: dropping the preposition entirely, saying "j'apprends nager" instead of j'apprends à nager.
• Common mistake: guessing from the English verb instead of memorizing each French verb together with its preposition, like a single vocabulary unit.

Putting It Together: Describing Your Day

Picture texting a friend back home about your morning in France.

• You: Je suis chez moi, dans la cuisine, et je pars au bureau dans dix minutes. (I'm at my place, in the kitchen, and I'm leaving for the office in ten minutes.)
• Friend: Tu habites toujours à Lyon? (Do you still live in Lyon?)
• You: Oui, mais je voyage souvent -- le mois dernier j'étais en Italie, et la semaine prochaine je pars au Portugal. (Yes, but I travel often -- last month I was in Italy, and next week I'm leaving for Portugal.)

Notice how chez, dans, à, en, and au all appear in three short sentences, each doing a different job. That's the real test: not reciting the rule, but reaching for the right French preposition without stopping to translate.

Practice Exercises

• Fill in the blank: Je vais ___ cinéma ce soir. (à + le)
• Translate into French: "I'm at the dentist's." (use chez)
• Multiple choice: Which preposition goes with Chine (China)? (a) à (b) en (c) au
• Fill in the blank: Elle habite ___ États-Unis. (in the United States)
• Translate into French: "I'm trying to understand." (use essayer de)
• True or false: à and de contract with la the same way they contract with le.

Answer Key

• au — Je vais au cinéma ce soir.
• *Je suis chez le dentiste.*
• (b) en — Chine is feminine, so it takes en: en Chine.
• aux — Elle habite aux États-Unis.
• *J'essaie de comprendre.*
• False — à and de only contract with le and les (becoming au, aux, du, des); la and l' always stay separate.

Small Words, Big Difference

• French sorts location by category -- à for cities, en/au/aux for countries depending on gender and number, chez for someone's home, and dans/sur/sous for physical position.
• À and de fuse with le and les into au, aux, du, and des, but never with la or l' -- one of the most common small errors even at an intermediate level.
• Verbs like commencer à and décider de pair with a fixed preposition memorized verb by verb, since English "to" doesn't hint at which one French wants.

Once these French prepositions stop requiring a translation step in your head, whole sentences start coming out faster and more naturally. Try describing your own day out loud using chez, à, and en, or head over to Passage's Grammar section for more lessons on prepositions and countries.