French Prepositions with Geographical Names

Lesson on geographical prepositions

Introduction | Countries and Continents
States and Provinces | Cities and Islands | Test

Deciding which French preposition to use with countries, cities, and other geographical names can be somewhat confusing, at least until now! This lesson will explain which prepositions to use and why.

Like all French nouns, geographical names like countries, states, and provinces have a gender. Knowing the gender of each geographical name is the first step in determining which preposition to use. As a general guideline, geographical names which end in e are feminine, while those that end in any other letter are masculine. There are, of course, exceptions which simply have to be memorized. See the individual lessons for explanations of the gender of each geographical name.

In English, we use three different prepositions with geographical names, depending on what we are trying to say.

1. I'm going to France - Je vais en France
2. I'm in France - Je suis en France
3. I'm from France - Je suis de France

However, in French numbers 1 and 2 take the same preposition. Whether you are going to France or you are in France, the same preposition is used. Thus in French there are only two prepositions to choose from for each type of geographical name. The difficulty lies in knowing which preposition to use for a city vs a state vs a country.

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