Breakdown of Au restaurant, la serveuse apporte le menu et sourit à Marie.
Marie
Marie
et
and
à
to
le restaurant
the restaurant
Questions & Answers about Au restaurant, la serveuse apporte le menu et sourit à Marie.
What does Au restaurant literally mean, and why do we say au instead of à le?
Au restaurant literally means At the restaurant or In the restaurant.
In French, à + le contracts to au in front of a masculine singular noun:
- à + le restaurant → au restaurant
This contraction is mandatory in standard French; you cannot say à le restaurant.
Other examples:
- à + le cinéma → au cinéma
- à + le parc → au parc
If the noun is feminine, there is no contraction:
- à + la boulangerie → à la boulangerie
Why is it la serveuse and not le serveuse or la serveur?
French nouns have grammatical gender.
- serveur = masculine form (male waiter) → le serveur
- serveuse = feminine form (female waiter) → la serveuse
Because the sentence is talking about a female server, it uses the feminine noun serveuse and the corresponding feminine article la → la serveuse.
You cannot mix a feminine article with a masculine noun (la serveur) or a masculine article with a feminine noun (le serveuse). They must agree:
- le serveur
- la serveuse