Nous habitons en France.

Questions & Answers about Nous habitons en France.

Why do we use en here instead of à or au?
Because France is a feminine country. In French, most countries that end in the letter 'e' are feminine. To say 'in' or 'to' a feminine country, you always use the preposition en. If it were a masculine country, like Canada, you would use au (au Canada).
Why doesn't it say en la France? Doesn't French usually require words like 'le' or 'la' before nouns?
That is a great rule to remember, but there is an exception for countries! When you use the preposition en with a feminine country, you drop the la. It is simply en France.
Is the 'h' in habitons pronounced?
No, the letter 'h' is almost always silent in French. Because habitons starts with a silent 'h', the word acts like it starts with a vowel. This means the 's' at the end of Nous links to it, creating a 'z' sound. It sounds like 'noo-zah-bee-tohn'. This linking is called a liaison.
Why does the verb end in -ons?
Habitons is the 'we' form of the verb habiter (to live). For regular verbs ending in -er, you drop the -er and add -ons whenever the subject is nous.

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