French Prepositions with Countries and Continents
Which preposition should you use with a country or continent?
Introduction | Countries and Continents
States and Provinces | Cities and Islands |
Test
When trying to determine which preposition to use with a country or continent, the only difficulty is in knowing its gender.
Nearly all countries that end in e are feminine and the rest are masculine. There are just a few exceptions:
- le Belize
- le Cambodge
- le Mexique
- le Mozambique
- le Zaïre
- le Zimbabwe
All continents end in e and all are feminine.
Once you know the gender, it is a simple matter to decide which preposition to use.*
- Masculine and plural countries take à or
de plus the appropriate
definite
article.
> Except for masculine countries that begin with a vowel, which take en to mean to/in and d' to mean from.
- Feminine countries and continents take en or de with no article.
| Country is: | To or In | From |
| masculine and starts with consonant | au | du |
| masculine and starts with vowel | en | d' |
| feminine | en | de / d' |
| plural | aux | des |
Examples:
| Masculine country | Feminine country | Plural country | Continent |
| Je vais au Togo. | Elle va en Chine. | Il va aux Fidji. | Tu vas en Asie. |
| Je suis au Togo. | Elle est en Chine. | Il est aux Fidji. | Tu es en Asie. |
| Je suis du Togo. | Elle est de Chine. | Il est des Fidji. | Tu es d'Asie. |
*Islands follow their own rules.
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Prepositions with
Test on geographical prepositions |
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