When the preposition à (to, at, in) or de (of, from, about) lands directly in front of the masculine or plural definite article le / les, French does something English never does: it fuses the two words into a single form. À + le is not pronounced or written à le; it is au. De + les is not de les; it is des. These four fused forms — au, aux, du, des — are called prépositions articulées (articulated prepositions), because the preposition has absorbed the article. They appear in the determiner slot of the noun phrase, which is why this page covers them from the determiner side; the same material is treated from the preposition side in Les Contractions au, aux, du, des.
This page focuses on the determiner consequences: which articles contract, which do not, why the feminine la and the elided l' never contract, and how the contracted form behaves in the noun phrase. The contractions are obligatory — there is no stylistic alternative — and you will need them in almost every sentence you produce, so the page closes with a long drill section.
The four obligatory contractions
There are exactly four. Memorize them as a closed set.
| Preposition + Article | Contracts to | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| à + le | au | au cinéma | to/at the cinema |
| à + les | aux | aux enfants | to the children |
| de + le | du | du professeur | of/from the teacher |
| de + les | des | des étudiants | of/from the students |
The forms à le and de le are not just unusual or old-fashioned — they are ungrammatical in modern French. A native speaker will not say them, will not write them, and will not recognize them as French. The contraction is automatic: the brain produces au the moment à meets le, with no conscious choice involved.
Je vais au cinéma ce soir.
I'm going to the cinema tonight.
Le directeur parle aux employés.
The director is speaking to the employees.
C'est la voiture du voisin.
It's the neighbor's car.
L'avis des parents compte beaucoup.
The parents' opinion matters a lot.
The articles that do not contract
Two definite articles are immune to contraction: feminine singular la and the elided l' (which appears before any singular noun, masculine or feminine, that begins with a vowel or h muet). Both keep their full form after à and de.
| Combination | Result | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| à + la | à la (no change) | à la maison | at home / to the house |
| à + l' | à l' (no change) | à l'école | at/to school |
| de + la | de la (no change) | de la cuisine | from/of the kitchen |
| de + l' | de l' (no change) | de l'hôpital | from/of the hospital |
The reason is partly phonological. À + le is two unstressed syllables that fuse easily into a single rounded vowel /o/. À + la is already a clean two-syllable sequence (/a.la/) with no awkward collision; there is no pressure to contract. The elided l' is already part of a fused unit with the noun (l'école is one phonological word), so adding à in front simply gives /a.le.kɔl/ — again, no collision to resolve.
Elle est à la bibliothèque depuis ce matin.
She's been at the library since this morning.
Nous habitons à l'autre bout de la ville.
We live at the other end of the city.
Le titre du livre vient de la phrase d'ouverture.
The book's title comes from the opening sentence.
Le toit de l'immeuble a besoin de réparations.
The building's roof needs repairs.
Why this matters in the determiner slot
A noun phrase introduced by a definite article — le chat, la maison, les enfants — keeps its determiner when a preposition is added. But because au, aux, du, des fuse the preposition with the article, the determiner is no longer visible as a separate word. This is the single most common source of confusion for English speakers, who are used to seeing prepositions and articles as two separate, unaltered words (to the cinema, of the children).
In French, the article is still grammatically present in au cinéma — it is just hidden inside the form au. You can prove this by changing the noun's gender or number:
- au cinéma (m.sg.) ↔ à la maison (f.sg.) ↔ aux écoles (pl.) — three different visible forms, but each is à
- the appropriate definite article.
- du professeur (m.sg.) ↔ de la professeure (f.sg.) ↔ des professeurs (pl.) — same pattern with de.
When you switch a noun from masculine to feminine, you lose the contraction; when you switch from singular to plural, you regain it (in a different form).
Je vais au musée — non, à la galerie, en fait.
I'm going to the museum — no, to the gallery, actually.
On parle souvent du président, jamais de la présidente.
We often talk about the (male) president, never about the (female) president.
Les enfants viennent du parc, mais les adolescents viennent des cafés.
The kids are coming from the park, but the teenagers are coming from the cafés.
Au cinéma, never à le cinéma
This single contrast is worth its own section because of how often English speakers slip. The form à le cinéma sounds plausible to an English ear — it looks like a literal mapping of to the cinema — but it is wrong. Always.
❌ Je vais à le cinéma.
Incorrect — à + le must contract to au.
✅ Je vais au cinéma.
I'm going to the cinema.
The same applies for every masculine singular noun starting with a consonant after à:
- à le marché → au marché (to the market)
- à le bureau → au bureau (to/at the office)
- à le restaurant → au restaurant (to/at the restaurant)
- à le parc → au parc (to/at the park)
- à le travail → au travail (to/at work)
And the parallel rule for de:
- de le cinéma → du cinéma
- de le marché → du marché
- de le voisin → du voisin
On rentre du travail vers sept heures.
We get back from work around seven.
Le chien du voisin aboie tout le temps.
The neighbor's dog barks all the time.
Plurals: aux and des
The plural definite article les is identical for masculine and feminine, so the contractions aux and des are gender-neutral. They appear in front of any plural noun — male, female, mixed — as long as the article in question would be les.
Les profs parlent aux étudiants après le cours.
The teachers talk to the students after class.
Le résultat des élections a surpris tout le monde.
The election results surprised everyone.
Elle écrit aux journalistes pour leur expliquer sa position.
She writes to the journalists to explain her position.
A note on pronunciation: aux and des take a liaison /z/ when the next word begins with a vowel — aux États-Unis /o.ze.ta.zy.ni/, des amis /de.za.mi/. The /z/ is the silent x or s of the article reactivated by the following vowel.
When the article is not le or les: indefinite, partitive, possessive
A common confusion: the contraction rule applies only to the definite articles le and les. With other determiners (indefinite un / une, partitive du / de la / des, possessives, demonstratives), there is no contraction to make — the à or de simply sits in front of the determiner with no fusion.
| Combination | Result | Example |
|---|---|---|
| à + un | à un | à un ami (to a friend) |
| à + une | à une | à une réunion (to a meeting) |
| à + mon / ma / mes | à mon / à ma / à mes | à mon père (to my father) |
| à + ce / cet / cette / ces | à ce / à cet / à cette / à ces | à ce moment (at this moment) |
| de + un | d'un (elision, not contraction) | d'un ami (of a friend) |
| de + une | d'une | d'une amie (of a friend, f.) |
Note that de + un and de + une trigger elision (d'un, d'une), not contraction. Elision is the dropping of a vowel before another vowel; contraction is the fusion of two whole forms. They are different mechanisms and produce different orthography.
Je parle à un collègue de travail.
I'm talking to a work colleague.
C'est l'opinion d'un expert reconnu.
It's the opinion of a recognized expert.
Donne ce livre à ton frère, pas à ma sœur.
Give this book to your brother, not to my sister.
Drill: producing au, aux, du, des on demand
The fastest way to make the contractions automatic is to chain dozens of them in real contexts. Here is a drill block — read each sentence aloud, paying attention to the contracted form in italics.
Le matin, je vais au café avant d'aller au bureau.
In the morning, I go to the café before going to the office.
On dîne souvent au restaurant le vendredi soir.
We often eat out at a restaurant on Friday evenings.
Les enfants jouent au foot dans le parc.
The kids are playing soccer in the park.
Ce week-end, on emmène les enfants au zoo.
This weekend, we're taking the kids to the zoo.
Le ministre a répondu aux questions des journalistes.
The minister responded to the journalists' questions.
J'ai écrit aux deux candidats pour leur poser la même question.
I wrote to both candidates to ask them the same question.
Le prof distribue des copies aux élèves.
The teacher hands out copies to the students.
Elle revient du marché avec un panier plein de légumes.
She's coming back from the market with a basket full of vegetables.
Le bruit du voisin m'a réveillé à trois heures du matin.
The neighbor's noise woke me up at three in the morning.
C'est la fin du film — éteins la télé.
It's the end of the movie — turn off the TV.
On a entendu parler du nouveau projet du gouvernement.
We heard about the government's new project.
Les notes des examens sortent demain.
The exam grades come out tomorrow.
Le directeur des ressources humaines veut te parler.
The head of human resources wants to talk to you.
On parle souvent des problèmes, jamais des solutions.
People often talk about problems, never about solutions.
Common Mistakes
These are the errors English speakers make most often when first learning the contractions. All of them are real — they appear in beginner essays, classroom production, and casual messages — and all of them are 100% diagnosable.
❌ Je vais à le cinéma avec mes amis.
Incorrect — à + le must contract to au.
✅ Je vais au cinéma avec mes amis.
I'm going to the cinema with my friends.
❌ Le livre de le professeur est sur la table.
Incorrect — de + le must contract to du.
✅ Le livre du professeur est sur la table.
The teacher's book is on the table.
❌ Il parle à les enfants tous les jours.
Incorrect — à + les must contract to aux.
✅ Il parle aux enfants tous les jours.
He talks to the kids every day.
❌ Je viens de les États-Unis.
Incorrect — de + les must contract to des.
✅ Je viens des États-Unis.
I come from the United States.
❌ Elle va au boulangerie.
Incorrect — *boulangerie* is feminine, so no contraction: à la, not au.
✅ Elle va à la boulangerie, puis au marché.
She's going to the bakery, then to the market.
❌ C'est l'avis de l' expert le plus respecté.
Incorrect — de + l' stays as de l' (no contraction); written without the gap.
✅ C'est l'avis de l'expert le plus respecté.
It's the opinion of the most respected expert.
A specifically English-influenced error: applying the contraction logic to the indefinite article. À un ami and de un ami are wrong only in the second case (which becomes d'un ami by elision). There is no contraction aun or dun. Keep the indefinite article visible.
❌ J'ai parlé dun ami de mon frère.
Incorrect — d'un is correctly written with an apostrophe (elision), not as one word.
✅ J'ai parlé d'un ami de mon frère.
I spoke with a friend of my brother's.
Key Takeaways
The articulated prepositions are a small closed system, but their reach is enormous — they appear in nearly every French sentence longer than a few words. Internalize three things and you have the full system: (1) only le and les contract, never la and never l'; (2) à + these gives au and aux, de + these gives du and des; (3) the contractions are obligatory and the non-contracted forms are not French. Once these are automatic, you stop translating word-by-word from English and start producing the noun phrase as a single unit, which is what fluent French production feels like.
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- Vue d'Ensemble des DéterminantsA1 — French determiners are the small words placed in front of nouns — articles, possessives, demonstratives, quantifiers, numerals. Almost every common noun in French requires one. This page maps the full system.
- Élisions des Déterminants devant VoyelleA2 — How French definite articles, partitives, demonstratives, and possessives reshape themselves before vowels and h muet — and the small list of h aspiré words that block the rule.
- The Contractions au, aux, du, desA1 — The mandatory contractions of à and de with le and les — a foundational mechanic that touches almost every French sentence.
- The Preposition ÀA1 — À is the most polyvalent preposition in French — covering location, direction, time, manner, possession, indirect objects, and more.
- The Preposition DeA1 — De is the second great workhorse of French — covering origin, possession, composition, partitives, verb complements, and more.
- Prépositions avec Lieux et PaysA1 — How French chooses between à, en, au, and aux to say 'in/to a place' — the rule that depends on whether the place is a city, a feminine country, a masculine country, or plural — plus the matching forms (de, de, du, des) for 'from'.