Breakdown of À la poste, je colle un timbre sur la carte pour ma tante.
Questions & Answers about À la poste, je colle un timbre sur la carte pour ma tante.
À means at / to, and la is the feminine singular definite article (the).
Poste (the post office) is a feminine noun in French: la poste.
When you combine à + la, nothing changes: à la.
- à + la poste → à la poste (at the post office)
- If the noun were masculine, you’d get à + le = au (e.g. au magasin – at the shop).
Au poste would be at the post (e.g. a police station / guard post), which is a different meaning, and uses the masculine le poste.
- À la poste = at the post office (the normal, idiomatic way to say you are there / go there).
- Chez is for people or businesses seen as “someone’s place”:
- chez le dentiste – at the dentist’s
- You don’t normally say chez la poste.
- Dans la poste literally means inside the post office and would focus on being physically inside the building, not just “at” that place in general. It’s possible, but à la poste is the default.
So for everyday speech, to mean “at the post office,” you use à la poste.
The verb coller means to stick or to glue something so that it adheres.
- je colle un timbre = I stick / I’m sticking a stamp (onto something).
- je mets un timbre literally means “I put a stamp (on)”, which is understandable, but less precise about the action of sticking/gluing.
In context of stamps, the natural verb is coller because you’re making the stamp stick to the card or envelope.
French only has one present tense form (je colle) for both:
- English I stick (simple present)
- English I am sticking (present continuous / progressive)
So je colle un timbre can mean either:
- I stick a stamp (habitual/general)
- I’m sticking a stamp (right now)
Context does the job that English tense forms do. There is no separate “-ing” form in French for the normal present tense.
Un is the indefinite article (a / one), used when you’re talking about an unspecified or new item:
- je colle un timbre = I stick a stamp (some stamp, not a specific one already identified in the conversation).
Le timbre would be the stamp, referring to a particular stamp already known to speaker and listener, or to stamps in general:
- Je colle le timbre que tu m’as donné. – I’m sticking the stamp you gave me.
- Le timbre est cher. – The stamp (postage) is expensive.
Not always. Timbre on its own can mean:
- Postage stamp – in everyday contexts like this sentence.
- Stamp / seal in general (e.g. an official stamp on a document).
- In music, timbre also means tone color / sound quality.
For clarity, you may also see timbre-poste (literally “postage stamp”), but in normal speech for mailing letters and cards, people just say un timbre.
Sur means on / on top of.
- sur la carte = on the card (physically on its surface).
À la carte is a fixed restaurant expression meaning from the menu / ordering individual dishes, not related to a physical location on a card.
If you said un timbre à la carte, it would be confusing or incorrect here. You need sur because the stamp is on the surface of the card:
- sur la table – on the table
- sur la lettre – on the letter
- sur la carte – on the card
Carte is a very flexible word in French:
- a card (greeting card, postcard, playing card, etc.)
- a menu in a restaurant (la carte)
- a map (e.g. une carte de France – a map of France)
In this sentence, with un timbre and the post office context, la carte is understood as a card, typically:
- a postcard (une carte postale), or
- some other type of card being mailed (greeting card, etc.).
If you wanted to be more specific, you could say sur la carte postale (on the postcard). But in this context, la carte is naturally understood as a card you mail, not a menu or map.
Both pour and à can relate to people, but they emphasize different relationships:
pour = for (the benefit of) someone:
- une carte pour ma tante – a card for my aunt (she is the intended recipient; it’s meant for her).
à = to / to someone, often focusing on movement or giving:
- j’envoie une carte à ma tante – I send a card to my aunt.
- je donne la carte à ma tante – I give the card to my aunt.
In une carte pour ma tante, the emphasis is that the card is intended for her; that’s why pour is used.
Tante (aunt) is a feminine noun: la tante.
French possessive adjectives must agree with the gender and number of the noun, not with the person who possesses it. So:
ma
- feminine singular noun:
- ma tante – my aunt
- ma mère – my mother
mon
- masculine singular noun:
- mon oncle – my uncle
- mon père – my father
Even if the owner is male, you still say ma tante, not mon tante.
Yes, French word order is somewhat flexible here, and several versions are grammatically possible:
- À la poste, je colle un timbre sur la carte pour ma tante.
- À la poste, je colle un timbre pour ma tante sur la carte.
Both can work, and both are understandable. The usual, most natural order is:
- The direct object and what is done to it (un timbre sur la carte),
- Then the phrase indicating who it’s for (pour ma tante) at the end.
Putting pour ma tante right at the end is very typical and sounds smooth in everyday French.
À la poste is a locative phrase (it tells you where the action happens). When such a phrase is placed at the beginning of the sentence, it’s standard to separate it with a comma:
- À la poste, je colle un timbre… – At the post office, I stick a stamp…
The comma:
- signals that À la poste is an introductory phrase, and
- slightly emphasizes the location.
In informal writing, some people might omit it, but the version with the comma is considered correct and clear.
Yes, À (the preposition to / at) always takes a grave accent (à).
The accent distinguishes it from a (without accent), which is:
- the 3rd-person singular of avoir: il a – he has.
So:
- à la poste – at the post office (preposition, always with accent).
- il a une carte – he has a card (verb avoir, no accent).
In uppercase headlines or older texts, you may sometimes see A la poste, but the modern, correct spelling is À la poste with the accent.