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  • Did you mean one of the following: 'A, à, ah, 'ha, 'hall?

The preposition à, often meaning to, in(to) or at, combines with the definite article to produce the following contracted forms. These forms thus all have the rough meaning of "to the...", "in(to) the...", "at the...":

  • à + le > au
  • à + les > aux

With la and l', the corresponding forms are à la and à l' as expected.

1 A Noun, masculine

(a) (letter) A; de ~ à Z, depuis ~ jusqu'à Z from A to Z; ne savoir ni ~ ni B to be completely illiterate; démontrer qch par A plus B to demonstrate sth logically

2 A Noun

(a) (in naming systems) A; (in motorway names) l'A15 the French A15 (motorway); (in paper sizes) une feuille A4 an A4 sheet (of paper)

(b) (on car) =L-plate; (Infml: used to describe car or person in it) learner (driver); une voiture avec un ~ a car with L plates; (Infml) il y a un ~ devant moi I've got a learner (driver) in front of me

3 à Preposition

How to pronounce à

(a) (indicating movement) to; aller ~ Paris to go to Paris; aller au cinéma to go to the cinema; aller ~ l'école (as a pupil) to go to school; (as a parent, visitor) to go to the school; (as a teacher) to go into school; aller ~ l'église (to worship) to go to church; (as a visitor, for confession etc) to go to the church; ~ à l'hôpital (as a patient) to go to hospital, go into hospital; (as a visitor) to go to the hospital

(b) (indicating position) in a town, building, room; at a railway station; habiter ~ Paris to live in Paris; habiter ~ Taiwan/au Canada to live in Taiwan/Canada; être au salon/~ la cuisine to be in the lounge/kitchen; ~ l'école at school, in school; (as a visitor) at the school, in the school; ~ l'église in church; (as visitor) in the church, (outside) at the church; au bureau at the office; qu'est-ce qu'on passe au cinéma? what's on at the cinema?; je l'ai recontrée au cinéma I bumped into her at (or) in the cinema

(c) (indicating position, occasion in time) at; ~ trois heures at three (o'clock); ~ quinze heures at 3 (o'clock) in the afternoon, at 3 pm; (in shipping forecast etc) at fifteen hundred hours; ~ quinze heures trente at half (past) three, at three thirty pm; (in shipping forecast etc) at fifteen thirty (hours); ~ son arrivée on (his) arrival, when he arrived (or) arrives; ~ plus tard! see you (later)!; ~ demain! see you tomorrow!; ~ la semaine prochaine! see you next week!; (Infml) ~ plus! see you! (neutral), laters! (Infml), bye for now! (Infml)

(d) (indicating origin) from a place, container, person, out of a container, off (Infml) a person; boire qch ~ la bouteille/~ la rivière to drink sth from the bottle/river; emprunter qch ~ qn to borrow sth from sb, borrow sth off sb (Infml); acheter qch ~ qn to buy sth from sb, buy sth off sb (Infml)

(e) (indicating distance) away (follows the noun); c'est ~ 10 kilomètres/minutes it's 10 kilometers/minutes away; c'est ~ 5 minutes de la gare it's 5 minutes (away) from the station

(f) (indicating activity) at, on; au travail, (Infml) au boulot at work; au travail!, (Infml) au boulot! let's get to work!, let's get moving! (Infml), let's get cracking! (Infml); ~ la vaisselle! let's get on with the washing up!, let's get cracking with the washing up! (Infml); au piano on the piano, at the piano; ~ la guitare (indicating casual activity) on the guitar; (in giving list of players) on guitar

(g) (indicating possession) c'est ~ moi/~ eux it's mine/theirs; c'est ~ qui? whose is it?; ~ qui la faute? whose fault is it?; c'est un ami ~ David he's a friend of David's; (Infml) le livre ~ Jean John's book (neutral); je suis ~ toi I'm all yours; je suis ~ toi dans un petit moment I'll be with you in a second; c'est ~ vous de le faire it's up to you to do it, you're the one that has to do it; ~ toi de jouer (it's) your turn; ce n'est pas ~ moi de le dire it's not for me to say

(h) (indicating extent, result) to; ~ ma grande surprise/consternation to my great surprise/dismay

4 a Verb

(a) (present tense form of avoir) =has (got); il ~ deux enfants he's got two children, he has two children (frm); elle ~ une voiture rouge she's got a red car, she has a red car (frm); (See: avoir)

5 A Noun

(a) (Comput) A drive; le lecteur de disques A the A drive

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