Learn French: Elle travaille au cinquième étage.

Elle travaille au cinquième étage.

She works on the fifth floor.

Breakdown of Elle travaille au cinquième étage.

the floor, a story (m)

cinquième

fifth

Questions & Answers about Elle travaille au cinquième étage.

Why does the sentence use au instead of sur le for "on the"?

In English, you say someone works "on" a floor, but in French, the standard preposition for this is à (at/to). Because the noun étage is masculine, à combines with le to become au.

Is étage masculine or feminine? It ends in an "e".

It is masculine (un étage). While many words ending in "e" are feminine, words ending in the suffix -age are almost always masculine in French. Other common examples include le fromage (cheese) and le voyage (trip).

Why is there an extra u in cinquième?

To make an ordinal number (like "fourth" or "tenth"), you normally add -ième to the base number. However, if you added it directly to cinq (cinqième), it would look awkward and might prompt a pronunciation change. Adding the u ensures the hard "k" sound remains intact, just like in cinquante (fifty).

If I go to the cinquième étage in France, is it the exact same level as the fifth floor in the US?