Prepositions with places (à / en / au / aux + countries)

Summary

Use à with cities, en with feminine countries and continents, au with masculine countries, aux with plural countries; the same prepositions mean both 'in' and 'to', and de/du marks origin.

Explanation

To say where you are or where you are going, French chooses the preposition according to the type of place and, for countries, according to gender and number. For a city you use à: à Paris, à Tokyo, à Montréal. For most continents and for feminine countries you use en: en France, en Italie, en Europe, en Asie. For masculine countries you use au, and for plural countries aux: au Japon, au Canada, aux États-Unis, aux Pays-Bas.

Country gender is therefore the pivot. A reliable clue is the ending: country names ending in -e are usually feminine and take en (la France → en France, la Chine → en Chine, la Belgique → en Belgique), while most others are masculine and take au (le Japon → au Japon, le Portugal → au Portugal, le Brésil → au Brésil). You also use en before any country beginning with a vowel regardless of gender, because au + vowel is avoided: en Iran, en Irak, en Israël.

There is a small but famous set of exceptions to the -e clue: le Mexique, le Cambodge, le Mozambique and le Zimbabwe are masculine despite ending in -e, so they take au (au Mexique). A few states and most islands behave idiosyncratically and are best memorised individually. Treat the -e rule as a strong default, not an absolute law.

A convenient feature is that the same preposition covers both 'in' and 'to': there is no separate word for movement. Je suis en France (I am in France) and je vais en France (I am going to France) use en alike; il habite au Canada and il va au Canada both use au. To express coming FROM a place, switch to de/d' for cities and feminine countries (de Paris, de France, d'Italie) and to du/des for masculine and plural countries (du Japon, des États-Unis).

Rule of thumb: city → à; continent or feminine/​vowel-initial country → en; masculine country → au; plural country → aux. If you are unsure of a country's gender, check whether it ends in -e (then usually en) and remember the handful of -e masculine exceptions. For origin, mirror the system with de / d' / du / des. Avoid the common error « à France » or « en Japon »: cities take à, gendered countries take en/au/aux.

Examples

Nous allons à Lyon, puis en Espagne et au Portugal. — We're going to Lyon, then to Spain and to Portugal. (à + city, en + feminine country, au + masculine country.)

Elle habite aux États-Unis. — She lives in the United States. (aux is used with plural country names.)

Je vais en Iran cet été. — I'm going to Iran this summer. (en before a country starting with a vowel, even though l'Iran is masculine.)

Il travaille au Mexique. — He works in Mexico. (le Mexique is masculine despite ending in -e, so au (not en).)

Je suis en France et je vais en Italie demain. — I'm in France and I'm going to Italy tomorrow. (The same en means both 'in' and 'to'.)

Elle revient du Japon et lui de Paris. — She's coming back from Japan and he from Paris. (Origin: du + masculine country, de + city.)

Common mistakes

Prerequisites

• Noun gender (masculine / feminine)

Related rules

• Prepositions à and de
• Article contractions (au / aux / du / des)
• Noun gender (masculine / feminine)