Saying "in France" or "to Japan" looks like one of the easiest things you can do in French — until you realize the preposition changes depending on whether the place is a city, a feminine country, a masculine country, or a plural country, and then changes again when you want to say "from" instead of "to". English uses one preposition (in, to, from) regardless of the destination; French uses a small grid of forms that you need to internalize early because it appears in every conversation about travel, origin, family, and work.
The good news: the system is small, regular, and almost entirely predictable from the gender of the place name. Once you have the gender, you have the preposition.
The core rule: city, feminine country, masculine country, plural
French splits places into four categories and uses a different preposition for each. The same form covers both "in" and "to" — French does not distinguish between location and destination here.
| Type of place | Preposition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| City | à | à Paris, à Tokyo |
| Feminine country | en | en France, en Italie |
| Masculine country | au | au Canada, au Japon |
| Plural country | aux | aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas |
That table is almost the whole topic. The rest of this page is about recognizing which category a place belongs to, the de / de / du / des forms for "from", and a handful of irregular cases.
Je vais à Paris demain pour le travail.
I'm going to Paris tomorrow for work.
Mes parents habitent en Italie depuis cinq ans.
My parents have been living in Italy for five years.
Elle est née au Canada mais elle a grandi au Maroc.
She was born in Canada but she grew up in Morocco.
Cet été, on part aux États-Unis voir ma cousine.
This summer, we're going to the United States to see my cousin.
Cities: à
Every city takes à, regardless of the language of origin or how French it sounds. This is the simplest case and there are no exceptions worth memorizing for a beginner.
Je travaille à Lyon mais je vis à Genève.
I work in Lyon but I live in Geneva.
Il y a un super restaurant marocain à Bruxelles, près de la gare.
There's a great Moroccan restaurant in Brussels, near the station.
A note on capitalization: French city names are capitalized exactly like in English (Paris, Tokyo, Buenos Aires), and they do not take an article — you say à Paris, never à la Paris. The rare exceptions are cities whose name historically contains an article: Le Havre, La Rochelle, Le Caire (Cairo). With these, the article contracts as expected: au Havre, à La Rochelle, au Caire.
Feminine countries: en
Most countries whose name ends in -e are feminine, and feminine countries take en. This rule covers the majority of countries you'll talk about.
- en France, en Italie, en Espagne, en Allemagne, en Suisse, en Belgique
- en Russie, en Chine, en Inde, en Australie, en Argentine, en Égypte
- en Grèce, en Norvège, en Suède, en Pologne, en Roumanie
Note that en absorbs the article — you do not say en la France, only en France. This is unique to en + country and en + region; with most other prepositions and most other nouns, the article stays.
On a passé deux semaines en Espagne au mois d'août.
We spent two weeks in Spain in August.
Ma sœur fait ses études en Allemagne, à Berlin.
My sister is studying in Germany, in Berlin.
There is one small extension to the rule: masculine countries that begin with a vowel also take en (because au + vowel would be awkward). The most common one is l'Iran: en Iran. Same with en Israël, en Irak, en Afghanistan. These countries are grammatically masculine but behave like feminine countries for preposition purposes — purely a phonetic accommodation.
Mon oncle a vécu en Iran pendant les années 1970.
My uncle lived in Iran during the 1970s.
Masculine countries: au
Countries whose name does not end in -e are usually masculine and take au (which is the contraction of à + le).
- au Canada, au Japon, au Brésil, au Maroc, au Mexique
- au Portugal, au Danemark, au Pakistan, au Vietnam, au Liban
- au Chili, au Pérou, au Sénégal, au Cambodge, au Kenya
Tu es déjà allé au Japon ? J'aimerais tellement y aller.
Have you been to Japan? I would so love to go.
Il travaille au Maroc depuis l'année dernière.
He's been working in Morocco since last year.
The big exception: le Mexique
A few countries end in -e but are nonetheless masculine, breaking the standard pattern. These are the ones to memorize:
- le Mexique → au Mexique
- le Mozambique → au Mozambique
- le Cambodge → au Cambodge
- le Zimbabwe → au Zimbabwe
- le Belize → au Belize
These are the trap. Every learner says en Mexique once, and every learner has to be corrected.
Ils ont passé leur lune de miel au Mexique, à Tulum.
They spent their honeymoon in Mexico, in Tulum.
Plural countries: aux
A few countries have plural names, and they take aux (the contraction of à + les).
- aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas, aux Philippines
- aux Émirats arabes unis, aux Bahamas, aux Maldives, aux Comores
The plural is real grammatical plural — the country name itself contains les in the article (les États-Unis).
Mon frère vit aux Pays-Bas, à Amsterdam.
My brother lives in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam.
On rêve d'aller aux Philippines pour notre voyage de noces.
We dream of going to the Philippines for our honeymoon.
"From": de, de, du, des
To say from a place, French uses the matching grid of de forms. The pattern mirrors the à / en / au / aux grid exactly: cities and feminine countries take a bare de (no article), masculine countries take du (de + le), and plural countries take des (de + les).
| Type of place | "From" | Example |
|---|---|---|
| City | de / d' | de Paris, d'Athènes |
| Feminine country | de / d' | de France, d'Italie |
| Masculine country | du | du Canada, du Japon |
| Plural country | des | des États-Unis, des Pays-Bas |
The crucial detail: with cities and feminine countries, de takes no article — de France, never de la France. This parallels the article-absorption you saw with en France.
Je viens de Paris, mais ma famille est d'Italie.
I'm from Paris, but my family is from Italy.
Cette voiture vient du Japon — elle est plus fiable que les européennes.
This car comes from Japan — it's more reliable than European ones.
Mes grands-parents ont émigré des États-Unis dans les années 60.
My grandparents emigrated from the United States in the sixties.
The same forms work for origin in many extended senses: un fromage de France, un vin du Chili, des étudiants des États-Unis.
Elle a rapporté un fromage de Normandie pour le dîner.
She brought back a cheese from Normandy for dinner.
Continents — all feminine, all en
Every continent name in French is feminine and takes en:
- en Europe, en Afrique, en Asie, en Amérique, en Océanie
Their "from" forms drop the article: d'Europe, d'Afrique, d'Asie, d'Amérique.
On a beaucoup voyagé en Asie l'année dernière.
We traveled a lot in Asia last year.
Beaucoup de plantes utilisées dans la cuisine française viennent d'Amérique.
Many plants used in French cooking come from the Americas.
A subtlety: Amérique on its own usually means the Americas as a continent. To distinguish North and South, French says en Amérique du Nord and en Amérique du Sud. For the country the United States, use the plural aux États-Unis.
Regions, states, and provinces
Sub-national regions follow the same gender-based logic as countries:
- Feminine (most ending in -e): en — en Provence, en Bretagne, en Normandie, en Californie, en Floride, en Toscane
- Masculine (most not ending in -e): dans le — dans le Massachusetts, dans le Texas, dans le Colorado, dans le Vermont, dans le Yorkshire
The masculine pattern shifts from au to dans le — this is the one place where the country pattern doesn't carry over. Au Texas is sometimes heard but standard French is dans le Texas.
Mes cousins habitent en Californie, près de San Francisco.
My cousins live in California, near San Francisco.
Il fait des études dans le Massachusetts, à Boston.
He's studying in Massachusetts, in Boston.
On a fait un road trip dans le Colorado l'été dernier.
We did a road trip in Colorado last summer.
For French regions, the same rule: en Provence, en Bretagne, en Normandie, en Bourgogne (feminine, ending in -e); dans le Limousin, dans le Périgord, dans le Béarn (masculine).
Why English speakers find this hard
English uses in / to / from without caring what kind of place follows: in Paris, in France, in Japan, in the United States. French splits the same idea four ways based on category, and adds an extra "no article" rule for cities and feminine countries. That is three changes in one system.
The single hardest thing for English speakers is remembering the country's gender. There is no shortcut — you build the gender knowledge by exposure. The -e ending rule covers maybe 80% of countries; the rest you learn one at a time. Speakers who learned French as children don't think about gender any more than English speakers think about whether to say a or an; for adult learners, the first six months are spent silently checking "masculine? feminine?" before every country name.
Common mistakes
❌ Je vais à France cet été.
Incorrect — France is a feminine country, not a city.
✅ Je vais en France cet été.
I'm going to France this summer.
❌ Mon frère habite en Canada.
Incorrect — Canada is masculine, so it takes au, not en.
✅ Mon frère habite au Canada.
My brother lives in Canada.
❌ Elle vient de la France.
Incorrect — feminine countries lose the article after de.
✅ Elle vient de France.
She's from France.
❌ On part en Mexique.
Incorrect — Mexique ends in -e but is masculine, so au Mexique.
✅ On part au Mexique.
We're going to Mexico.
❌ Ce vin vient de les États-Unis.
Incorrect — de + les contracts to des.
✅ Ce vin vient des États-Unis.
This wine comes from the United States.
Quick reference
| Where you're going | Where you are | Where you're from |
|---|---|---|
| à Paris | à Paris | de Paris |
| en France | en France | de France |
| au Canada | au Canada | du Canada |
| aux États-Unis | aux États-Unis | des États-Unis |
| en Europe | en Europe | d'Europe |
| en Iran | en Iran | d'Iran |
| au Mexique | au Mexique | du Mexique |
| en Provence | en Provence | de Provence |
| dans le Texas | dans le Texas | du Texas |
Memorize the article that goes with each country (la France, le Japon, les Pays-Bas), and the rest of the system falls out automatically. This is one of the few topics in French where a small investment of memorization solves the problem cleanly.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- 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.
- Dans, En, Au — The Three Ways to Say 'In'A2 — Dans, en, and au all translate as 'in' — but each has a precise job. Master the split or you'll guess wrong every time.
- Exprimer le LieuA2 — How French expresses 'where' — from countries and cities to position prepositions, neighbourhoods, and the all-important gendered country system. Master à, en, au, aux for places, plus chez, dans, sur, sous, devant, derrière, and the rest.
- L'Article avec les Noms PropresA2 — When French uses an article with a proper noun and when it doesn't — people without, cities without (with a handful of exceptions), countries with, geographic features with, monuments with, languages with one set of verbs and without another. The rules look arbitrary in isolation but follow a clear logic once you know which categories pattern together.