The Contractions au, aux, du, des | French Grammar

If you learn one piece of French grammar in your first week, learn this one. The contractions au, aux, du, des are not a stylistic option — they are forced. The non-contracted forms à le, à les, de le, de les are ungrammatical in modern French. They do not occur in spoken French, in writing, in news, in literature, or in casual texting. A French speaker will not say them, will not write them, and will not even hear them when you produce them — the brain auto-corrects to the contracted form.

Because à and de are the two most-used prepositions in the language, and because le and les are the most-used definite articles, you will need these contractions in almost every sentence. This page drills them.

The four contractions

There are exactly four. Memorize the table cold.

Combination	Contracts to	Pronunciation	Example
à + le	au	/o/	au cinéma (to/at the cinema)
à + les	aux	/o/ (or /oz/ before vowel)	aux États-Unis (to/in the US)
de + le	du	/dy/	du pain (some bread / from the bread)
de + les	des	/de/ (or /dez/ before vowel)	des amis (some friends / of the friends)

Notice that au and aux are pronounced identically — both are /o/. The plural aux only sounds different when followed by a vowel, where the x is sounded as a z in liaison: aux États-Unis /o.ze.ta.zy.ni/, aux amis /o.za.mi/. The same is true for des before a vowel: des amis /de.za.mi/, des hommes /de.zɔm/.

On va au marché tous les samedis matins.

We go to the market every Saturday morning.

Je rentre du travail à dix-neuf heures.

I get back from work at seven p.m.

Mes parents adorent les vacances aux Antilles.

My parents love their holidays in the Caribbean.

Tu connais le nom des nouveaux voisins ?

Do you know the names of the new neighbours?

When there is no contraction

Contraction only happens with le and les. The feminine la and the elided l' (used before a vowel or h-muet) do not contract.

Combination	Form	Example
à + la	à la (no change)	à la maison (at home)
à + l'	à l' (no change)	à l'école (at school)
de + la	de la (no change)	de la viande (some meat)
de + l'	de l' (no change)	de l'eau (some water)

The reason is phonological: au and du are themselves single syllables built by fusing the vowel of the preposition with the vowel of le. The article la already begins with a consonant, so there is nothing to fuse; the two words simply sit side by side. The elided l' is technically a phonological host for whatever follows, and French resists piling more contractions on top of an already-contracted article.

Je vais à la boulangerie chercher du pain et de l'eau.

I'm going to the bakery to get bread and water.

On parle souvent de la situation à l'étranger.

We often talk about the situation abroad.

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The trick to producing the right contraction in real time is to think first about the gender and the first letter of the noun. Masculine consonant-initial → au / du. Plural any-letter → aux / des. Feminine consonant-initial → à la / de la. Vowel- or h-muet-initial of either gender → à l' / de l'. Once this small grid lives in your reflexes, you'll never have to think about it consciously again.

Why contraction is mandatory

This is not a polite suggestion. The forms à le, à les, de le, de les are not used by any French speaker in any context. They appear neither in formal writing nor in casual speech, neither in news headlines nor in song lyrics. If you produce je vais à le cinéma, a native listener will either:

silently auto-correct what they heard to au cinéma (most likely),
flag your French as that of a learner who hasn't yet learned this rule, or
assume something is wrong with the audio.

The contractions are lexicalised — they are written and stored in the mental lexicon as fused words, not as live combinations. A French child acquires au and du the way they acquire any other vocabulary item: as a single sound that means to/at/in the (masc.) or from/some/of the (masc.).

❌ Je vais à le cinéma.

Incorrect — à + le must contract.

✅ Je vais au cinéma.

I'm going to the cinema.

❌ Je viens de le bureau.

Incorrect — de + le must contract.

✅ Je viens du bureau.

I'm coming from the office.

Multiple meanings of one contraction

A single contracted form can carry several meanings, because the preposition underneath (à or de) carries several meanings of its own. Au can mean to the, at the, in the, depending on the verb and context. Du and des additionally serve as partitive articles — the way French expresses some before mass and uncountable nouns.

Je vais au parc.

I'm going to the park. (Direction.)

Je suis au parc.

I'm at the park. (Location.)

Le café au lait, c'est ma boisson préférée.

Coffee with milk is my favourite drink. (Description: coffee with milk.)

Je voudrais du café.

I'd like some coffee. (Partitive — du = de + le, but here the article is partitive and du means 'some'.)

Le prix du café a augmenté.

The price of coffee has gone up. (Possessive de — 'of the coffee'.)

The fact that du café can mean both some coffee (partitive) and of the coffee (genitive) depending on context is not unusual; French simply lets the same surface form cover both jobs. Listeners disambiguate from the verb and the rest of the sentence: je bois du café is partitive (drinking some coffee), le prix du café is genitive (the price of coffee).

Contraction in country names and place names

The country-and-region system relies heavily on contraction, because most masculine countries take au. Memorize the most frequent ones:

Country	Going to / in	Coming from
le Canada (m.)	au Canada	du Canada
le Japon (m.)	au Japon	du Japon
le Portugal (m.)	au Portugal	du Portugal
le Mexique (m.)	au Mexique	du Mexique
les États-Unis (pl.)	aux États-Unis	des États-Unis
les Pays-Bas (pl.)	aux Pays-Bas	des Pays-Bas
les Philippines (pl.)	aux Philippines	des Philippines
la France (f.)	en France	de France
l'Italie (f.)	en Italie	d'Italie

Feminine countries use en instead of à (so no contraction needed) and drop the article entirely after de (de France, not de la France). Masculine countries trigger au / du contractions. Plural countries trigger aux / des. See Places and countries for the full set.

Mes cousins habitent au Mexique mais sont nés aux États-Unis.

My cousins live in Mexico but were born in the United States.

Le vin du Portugal est excellent et moins cher que le vin de France.

Portuguese wine is excellent and cheaper than French wine.

Contraction with verb constructions

Many French verbs take à or de before their complement. When the complement begins with the masculine le or the plural les, the contraction kicks in automatically.

Je pense au week-end prochain.

I'm thinking about next weekend. (penser à + le week-end → au week-end)

Tu te souviens des vacances de l'été dernier ?

Do you remember last summer's holidays? (se souvenir de + les vacances → des vacances)

On va parler aux enfants ce soir.

We'll talk to the kids tonight. (parler à + les enfants → aux enfants)

Il a peur du noir depuis qu'il est petit.

He's been afraid of the dark ever since he was little. (avoir peur de + le noir → du noir)

The contraction is mechanical — your mind only needs to know two facts: that the verb takes à or de, and that the article in front of the noun is le or les. Everything else is automatic.

Contraction with relative pronouns

The relative pronoun lequel and its forms (lesquels, laquelle, lesquelles) follow the same contraction rule when preceded by à or de.

Preposition + relative	Contracted form
à + lequel	auquel
à + lesquels	auxquels
à + laquelle	à laquelle (no contraction)
à + lesquelles	auxquelles
de + lequel	duquel
de + lesquels	desquels
de + laquelle	de laquelle (no contraction)
de + lesquelles	desquelles

Le projet auquel je travaille est très intéressant.

The project I'm working on is very interesting.

Les amis avec lesquels je suis parti en Espagne sont rentrés hier.

The friends I went to Spain with came back yesterday.

The feminine singular laquelle does not contract, mirroring the no-contraction rule for à la / de la.

What does NOT contract

A few cases look like contraction targets but are not.

The pronoun le (the direct object pronoun, not the article) does not contract. It always sits next to a verb, never directly after à or de, so the question rarely arises in practice — but be aware: je vais le voir is I'm going to see him, and there is no contraction because le here is a pronoun, not an article.

Proper names of people, when preceded by de in possessive constructions, do not contract: le livre de Pierre (Pierre's book), not le livre du Pierre — because there is no article to merge with.

Stressed pronouns like lui, elle, eux, elles never contract: je parle à lui (I'm talking to him — though the more idiomatic form is je lui parle with the indirect object pronoun).

J'ai donné le cadeau à mes parents.

I gave the gift to my parents. (à + mes — no contraction; mes is a possessive determiner, not le/les.)

C'est l'idée de mon frère.

It's my brother's idea. (de + mon — no contraction.)

The rule is sharp: contraction happens only when à or de meets le or les directly. Any other determiner — mon, ma, mes, ce, cette, ces, mon, ton, son, notre, votre, leur — leaves the preposition unchanged.

Common Mistakes

These are the errors English speakers and other learners make most often.

❌ Je vais à le restaurant.

Incorrect — à + le must contract to au.

✅ Je vais au restaurant.

I'm going to the restaurant.

❌ 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.

❌ Je parle à les enfants.

Incorrect — à + les must contract to aux.

✅ Je parle aux enfants.

I'm talking to the children.

❌ Je viens à la maison du Pierre.

Incorrect — Pierre is a proper name with no article; no contraction possible.

✅ Je viens à la maison de Pierre.

I'm coming to Pierre's house.

❌ Au la plage, il fait chaud.

Incorrect — plage is feminine, so no contraction. Au only works with masculine le.

✅ À la plage, il fait chaud.

At the beach, it's hot.

❌ Je vais à l'Canada.

Incorrect — Canada is masculine, so au, not à l'. The elided l' only appears before vowels and h-muet, and Canada starts with a consonant.

✅ Je vais au Canada.

I'm going to Canada.

❌ J'ai besoin de les conseils de mon père.

Incorrect — de + les must contract to des.

✅ J'ai besoin des conseils de mon père.

I need my father's advice.

Drill: produce the contraction

Read each English sentence below and try to produce the French version with the correct contraction before checking the answer.

Je vais au cinéma avec mes amis.

I'm going to the cinema with my friends.

Le chien dort sous la table de la cuisine.

The dog is sleeping under the kitchen table. (de la — no contraction; cuisine is feminine.)

On a parlé du film pendant tout le dîner.

We talked about the film all through dinner.

Tu te souviens des leçons de l'année dernière ?

Do you remember last year's lessons?

Le directeur de l'école a appelé les parents des élèves.

The headteacher called the students' parents.

J'ai acheté un cadeau aux enfants de ma sœur.

I bought a gift for my sister's kids.

Le bureau du directeur est au troisième étage.

The director's office is on the third floor.

Key takeaways

à + le = au; à + les = aux; de + le = du; de + les = des. These contractions are mandatory.
The feminine la and the elided l' never contract — à la, à l', de la, de l' stay separate.
Contraction is purely mechanical: it happens whenever à or de meets le or les directly, regardless of meaning.
The relative pronoun lequel contracts the same way: auquel, auxquels, auxquelles, duquel, desquels, desquelles. Laquelle alone does not contract.
Proper names without articles (Pierre, Marie), possessives (mon, mes), and demonstratives (ce, ces) all leave à and de unchanged.

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