Learn French: Nous achetons un soldat d'étain.

Étain (tin) is the material the soldier is made of. French uses de (or d' before a vowel) to describe what an object is made of. The preposition à is reserved for physical characteristics or purpose, like a toy with a specific feature (for example, un soldat à cheval for a soldier on horseback).

Is it also correct to say un soldat en étain?

Yes! For materials, en is actually very common and often preferred in everyday spoken French (like un pull en laine). However, de is the traditional grammatical way to link a noun to its material, which is the focus of this lesson. Both are completely correct.

Why is there no definite article? Shouldn't it be de l'étain?

When de introduces a material that describes a noun, it acts like an adjective and takes no article. If you used the partitive article and said de l'étain, it would mean "some tin" in a literal quantity sense, rather than describing the category of toy.

I often mix up the spelling of acheter. Why is there no grave accent in achetons?