French grammar · A1 · Lesson 16
De and à + the article: du, des, au, aux
French has no apostrophe-s: “the captain’s watch” is la montre du commandant, “the watch of the captain”. De + le always becomes du and de + les becomes des; à + le becomes au and à + les becomes aux. La and l’ never merge.
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How does it work?
English has a neat little trick for ownership, the apostrophe-s: “the captain’s watch”. French has no such thing. It turns the phrase around and uses de (“of”): la montre de Nelly, literally “the watch of Nelly”. The owner always comes last.
Now the catch. When de lands in front of le or les, the two words are not allowed to sit side by side. They merge, every time, with no exceptions and no choice:
| de + … | à + … | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| le | du commandant | au commandant | merged |
| la | de la dame | à la dame | left alone |
| l’ | de l’officier | à l’officier | left alone |
| les | des passagers | aux passagers | merged |
Only the masculine le and the plural les get swallowed. La and l’ are left in peace, which is why the story says la montre du commandant but would say la cabine de la dame and la cabine de l’officier.
You met the à column in lesson 13 (aller au salon). It works in exactly the same way, and the two often travel together: du matin au soir, “from morning to night”, or au bout du pont, “at the end of the deck”.
One trap: des now has two jobs. In lesson 2 it meant “some” (des passagers, some passengers). Here it is “of the” (au milieu des faux cols, in the middle of the collars). The sentence always tells you which one you are looking at. And with a person’s name there is no article to merge: la signature d’Arsène Lupin, le kodak de Bernard.
What does it look like in the story?
These sentences come from lesson 16, “The captain’s watch”, where the narrator is crossing the Atlantic on the liner Provence with Arsène Lupin hidden among the passengers.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| La montre du commandant disparaît ! | The captain’s watch disappears! |
| Rozaine est l’homme du télégramme. | Rozaine is the man from the telegram. |
| Il parle aux officiers, il parle aux passagers. | He talks to the officers, he talks to the passengers. |
Try it: The words are le commandant, le télégramme, les passagers. So where have le and les gone in these three sentences? Look at the word just in front of each noun.
« Le lendemain, ironie charmante, on retrouvait la montre parmi les faux-cols du commandant en second. »
The next day, a charming irony, the watch was found among the collars of the second-in-command. Maurice Leblanc, L’Arrestation d’Arsène Lupin (1905).
How is it different from English?
English puts the owner first and the thing second: “the captain’s watch”. French reverses the order: la montre du commandant, thing first, owner last. If you read French ownership backwards, you will always get it right.
What mistake do English speakers make?
The classic slip is to write the two words separately: ✗ la montre de le commandant, ✗ il parle à les passagers. This is not a matter of style: the separate forms are simply never written, by anyone. ✓ la montre du commandant, ✓ il parle aux passagers. And never try the English apostrophe: ✗ le commandant’s montre does not exist.
Where can I practise it?
- Lesson 16: The captain’s watch: the story, the rule and interactive exercises, free.
- Review 4: lessons 16 to 20: this point again, in a summary table with the other lessons of the block.
- The A1 glossary: every word of the course, French to English.
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