à

See also: À, -à, and Variations of "a"

à - Translingual

Letter

à (upper case À)

The letter a with a grave accent.

à - Danish

Alternative forms

Preposition

of, of...each, each containing
at
to, or

à - Dutch

Preposition

indicates an approximate number
- Kook 2 à 3 aardappelen per persoon. ― Boil 2 or/to 3 potatoes per person.
indicates the price etc. each
- 10 blikjes à 0,06 € is 0,60 € in totaal. ― 10 cans at €0.06 each is €0.60 in total.

à - Finnish

Pronunciation

IPA: /ˈɑ/, [ˈɑ̝]

Adverb

à (not comparable)

a, per, each
- Synonyms: see kohti

à - French

Pronunciation

IPA: /a/
(France, Paris) IPA: [a] ^help
Homophones: a, as

Notes

In Canada, à and a are not homophones, à [a], a [ɑː].

Letter

à (lower case, upper case À)

A with grave accent, a letter used in French mostly to distinguish some homographs and in transliteration.

Usage notes

Use of accents on capital letters is variable. European usage is sometimes to omit accents, though the French Academy considers it incorrect. This is partly due to the keyboard layout used in France. Quebec usage is to put accents on capitals.

Preposition

to (destination)
- Je vais à Paris. ― I am going to Paris.
- aller au bout ― go to the end / go all the way
to (until)
- Le spectacle sera de 18h à 21h. ― The show will be from 6 pm to 9 pm.
on the, to (some directions)
- Tournez à gauche ! ― Turn [to the] left!
- Ne tournez pas encore à droite ! ― Don't turn [to the] right yet!
- Le vent vire au nord. ― The wind turns north.
- L'école est à gauche. ― The school is on the left.
at (said of a particular time)
- Je pars à cinq heures précises. ― I am leaving at exactly five o'clock.
- à dix heures et quart ― at quarter past ten
at, in, on (said of a particular place)
- à la maison ― at home
- à l'hôtel ― at the hotel
- au comptoir du bar ― at the bar
- au bois ― in the woods
- J'habite à un demi-kilomètre d'ici. ― I live half a kilometer from here.
- La maison qui a été détruite hier soir ne se trouvait qu'à trois kilomètres de chez nous.
  - The house that was destroyed last night was only three kilometers from our place.
from (origin)
- Nous prenons de l'eau au puits. ― We get water from the well.
- Je l'ai eu à la bibliothèque. ― I got it from the library.
- Voilà la femme à laquelle j'ai acheté mon chien ― There's the woman I bought my dog from.
of (belonging to)
- Synonym: (usually in different grammatical contexts) de
- C'est un ami à moi. ― This is a friend of mine.
- Cette voiture est à John. ― This is John's car.
- le chien à Marie ― Mary's dog [nonstandard: one normally would use de here]
till, until (used in farewells)
- à plus tard ― see you later
- à bientôt ― see you soon
- Salut, donc. À demain. ― Bye, then. 'Til tomorrow / see you tomorrow.
(cooking) cooked in or with
Used to make compound nouns to state what something is used for
- moulin à poivre ― pepper mill
- sac à dos ― backpack
- boite à musique ― music box
(before an infinitive) to (used to express something not completed)
- Il n'y a jamais grand-chose à faire par ici. ― There's never much to do around here.
- Là où tu ne vois pas grand-chose, je ne trouve qu'une grande abondance de choses qui restent à faire. ― Where you see nothing great, I only see a great abundance of things that need doing.
- Il reste deux tâches à finir. ― There are two things left to finish.
- Il y a de la bière à boire. ― There's some beer to drink.
- l'équipe à battre ― the team to beat
Used to describe a part of something, often translated into English as a compound adjective
- un animal à quatre pattes ― a four-legged animal
- une femme au visage pâle ― a pale-faced woman
- un homme à longue barbe ― a long-bearded man — a man with a long beard
- une chemise à manches courtes ― a short-sleeved shirt
- une maison aux murs de brique ― a brick-walled house / a house with brick walls
by
- peu à peu ― bit by bit
- petit à petit ― little by little
- minute à minute ― minute by minute
- jour à jour ― day by day
- un à un ― one by one
or, to (used to express an approximate number)
- six à sept personnes ― six or seven people
- de vingt à trente ans ― from twenty to thirty years
- tous les cinq à six ans ― every five or six years
Used to indicate the recipient of certain phrasal verb.
- mettre le feu à ― to set fire to
- clouer le bec à ― to shut (someone) up
- donner la chasse à ― to give chase to
with
- , Jacques Bouveresse, "Et Satan conduit le bal..." Kraus, Hitler & le nazisme, which is an introduction to the book La Troisième nuit de Walpurgis, by Karl Kraus, translated by Pierre Deshusses:
  - On peut remarquer, à ce propos, que ce n'est pas non plus dans des livre à prétention plus ou moins scientifique que Kraus avait l'habitude de chercher les instruments dont il avait besoin pour la déscription et l'expliquation.
    It may also be noticed, on this matter, that it is also not on books with more or less scientific pretentions that Kraus used to search for the instruments which he needed for description and explanation.

Usage notes

Expresses a report/ratio of place (to), time (at), means, manner, price. It can indicate possession (of or 's), particularly when used with a disjunctive personal pronoun, e.g. à moi, à eux, à elle.
Used to introduces several types of grammatical complement: indirect object, attribution, name, adjective.
- In French, a good number of intransitive verbs use à to mark an indirect object, e.g. reussir à (“to succeed at”). Sometimes, their English equivalents are transitive verbs taking direct objects, e.g. jouer à (un jeu) (“to play (a game)”). In cases like the latter, translations from French into English generally do not require any counterpartial element be rendered for à, though some ways of rendering certain verbs will allow for it.
When à is followed by a definite article, the two combined to give the following combined forms:

à + article	Combined form
à + le	au
à + la	unchanged (à la)
à + l'	unchanged (à l')
à + les	aux

- à la and à l' are almost entirely not used if the location referred to is a country, subnational division, or continent. (The same does not hold, however, for au and aux.) In these cases, en is used instead. Compare en France and aux États-Unis. The most notable exception is à la Barbade.

Logically following the previously described rule, à combines with the relative pronouns, which themselves contain an element of the definite article, producing these forms:

à + article	Combined form
à + lequel	auquel
à + laquelle	à laquelle
à + lesquels	auxquels
à + lesquelles	auxquelles

Derived terms

compounds and contractions

locutions and syntagma

Descendants

→ Danish: à
→ Dutch: à
→ German: à
→ Hungarian: à
→ Norwegian Bokmål: à, a
→ Swedish: à

à - German

Pronunciation

IPA: /aː/

Preposition

(business, colloquial) at (a specified price or rate of exchange per item)
- Vier Briefmarken à 75 Cent, das macht drei Euro, bitte!
  - Four stamps at 75 cents each, that's three euros, please!

Usage notes

Generally not followed by articles or adjectives, but if necessary it may be construed with nominative, dative, or accusative: à ein or einem or einen Euro.

Synonyms

zu (je)

Related terms

à la

à - Hungarian

Pronunciation

IPA: [ˈaː]

Letter

à (lower case, upper case À)

(commerce, dated) at, @ (at the given rate for each item)
- Synonyms: darabja, egyenként
(formal, often in the phrase à la) a la, in the style of, after the manner of
- Synonyms: módján, modorában, stílusában

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	à	à-k
accusative	à-t	à-kat
dative	à-nak	à-knak
instrumental	à-val	à-kkal
causal-final	à-ért	à-kért
translative	à-vá	à-kká
terminative	à-ig	à-kig
essive-formal	à-ként	à-kként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	à-ban	à-kban
superessive	à-n	à-kon
adessive	à-nál	à-knál
illative	à-ba	à-kba
sublative	à-ra	à-kra
allative	à-hoz	à-khoz
elative	à-ból	à-kból
delative	à-ról	à-król
ablative	à-tól	à-któl
non-attributive possessive - singular	à-é	à-ké
non-attributive possessive - plural	à-éi	à-kéi

Possessive forms of à
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	à-m	à-im
2nd person sing.	à-d	à-id
3rd person sing.	à-ja	à-i
1st person plural	à-nk	à-ink
2nd person plural	à-tok	à-itok
3rd person plural	à-juk	à-ik

Derived terms

à la carte

à - Italian

Verb

Obsolete spelling of ha, third-person singular present indicative of avere

à - Ladin

Verb

third-person singular present indicative of avei (“has”)
third-person plural present indicative of avei (“have”)

à - Ligurian

Verb

third-person singular present indicative of avéi (“has”)

à - Mandarin

Alternative forms

a – nonstandard

Romanization

à (a⁴, Zhuyin ㄚˋ)

Hanyu Pinyin reading of 啊
Hanyu Pinyin reading of 阿
Hanyu Pinyin reading of 𫮄
Hanyu Pinyin reading of 𮥀

à - Matal

Pronoun

he, she

à - Middle French

Preposition

(16th century onwards) Alternative form of a: at; to

à - Ngam

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

IPA: /ˈa˨/

Particle

initial interrogative particle on a question

à - Norman

Pronunciation

IPA: /a/

Preposition

to, at

Noun

à m (plural às)

at sign
- Synonyms: colînmachon, siez

à - Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

IPA: /a(ː)/, /ɑ(ː)/
Hyphenation: à
Homophones: a, A-, a-, ah

Preposition

to, up to
- fem à seks kroner
  - five to six kroner
at ... each
- tre kilo à seksti kroner
  - three kilos at sixty kroner each
in, a
- tre ganger à uka
  - thrice a week
- Synonym: i
(Used in French expressions, before a consonant) up to, in
- à jour, à la, à la carte, à la grecque, à la mode, vis-à-vis

Derived terms

à jour (“up to date”)
à la (“a la”)
à poeng med (“same score as”)

à - Portuguese

Alternative forms

á (obsolete)
aa (obsolete)

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA: /a/

(Portugal) IPA: /a/

Homophone: a (Brazil)
Hyphenation: à

Contraction

à f sg

Contraction of a a (“to the”): feminine singular of ao
- Vou à praia.
  - I’m going to the beach.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see ao.

Preposition

Misspelling of a.
forms adverbs meaning "in a manner related or resembling"
Clipping of à moda de.
accented preposition, the preposition a is accented when it comes before feminine words in prepositional, adverbial and conjunctive phrases; in
- Ele escreveu à caneta.
  - He wrote in pen.

Usage notes

The grave accent is used to differentiate the preposition of a simple article. In "He wrote in pen", the respective particle without the diacritic will make the sentence have another meaning: "He wrote the pen."

à - Rawang

Suffix

à (upper case À)

verbal suffix for marking past tense on transitive verbs.
- Wedø wà yàngà.
  - They did it like that.
- Àngbøø̀ng lòng vnáng bǿngà.
  - I forgot his name.

à - Romagnol

Alternative forms

Verb

third-person singular/plural present indicative of avér (“to have”)

à - Romani

Letter

à (lower case, upper case À)

(International Standard) The letter a with the grave accent.

à - Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

IPA: /a/ (as if spelled a)
Hyphenation: à

Preposition

à (+ dative)

from, out of

Usage notes

Before the definite article the form às is used instead.

Inflection

Personal inflection of à
Number	Person	Simple	Emphatic
Singular	1st	asam	asamsa
	2nd	asad	asadsa
	3rd m	às	às-san
	3rd f	aiste	aistese
Plural	1st	asainn	asainne
	2nd	asaibh	asaibhse
	3rd	asta	astasan

Synonyms

bho, o

à - Slovene

Pronunciation

(phoneme): IPA: /a/
(letter name, non-tonal transcription): IPA: /kràːtki àː/, /kràːtki áː/ kratki a

Letter

à (lower case, upper case À)

Additional letter, used in some words to denote the short stress on a.

Symbol

(non-tonal SNPT) Phonetic transcription of sound [a].

Pronunciation

(Natisone Valley dialect, phoneme): IPA: /a/

Letter

à (lower case, usually not in upper case)

(Natisone Valley dialect) Additional letter, used in some words to denote the long stress on a.

Pronunciation

IPA: /àː/, /áː/, /á/
Homophones: A, a

Preposition

(with accusative) for, per (the price, mass etc.)
- Synonyms: po, za
- 1886, Krain Landtag, Bericht über die Verhandlungen des Krainischen Landtages zu Laibach: nach den stenographischen Aufzeichnungen‎, page 219:
  - Meso à 105 gramov.
    Meat per 105 grams.

à - Spanish

Preposition

Obsolete spelling of a

à - Swedish

Pronunciation

IPA: /aː/

Preposition

... to ...
- 2 à 3 kg
  - 2 to 3 kilograms
- Synonym: –
@, at, each
- 2 st à 1 kr
  - 2 pieces at 1 krona each

à - Tày

Pronunciation

(Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA: [ʔaː˧˨]
(Trùng Khánh) IPA: [ʔaː˩]

Particle

Question particle.
- Hết đảy mí à? ― Can you do it?
- Pây liê̱u mí à? ― Wanna go play?

Noun

à (妸)

blood paternal aunt (younger than one's father)
- me̱ à ― (polite) paternal aunt

Particle

yeah
- Á chư̱ dá.
  - Yeah, that's right.

à - Vietnamese

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA: [ʔaː˨˩]
(Huế) IPA: [ʔaː˦˩]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA: [ʔaː˨˩]

Interjection

oh; I see

Particle

Question particle.
- Thế à?
  - Really?
- Cháu mới về à?
  - So you've come back.
- Nhóm mày có bốn người thôi à?
  - There's only four members in your group, isn't there?

Usage notes

In contrast to không which is used to make a yes-no question, à is used to seek confirmation, roughly equivalent to Japanese ね (ne) or the English use of tag questions. Compare to nhỉ, which is similar to Japanese よ (yo) in that it is used to make a light assertion or remark. However, à denotes a speaker's stronger belief that the hearer will agree with him or her than the expression phải không.
The negative reply to this type of question can start with không phải only to questions with a nominal predicate. Otherwise, the negative reply starts with không (or its variants, such as hông) or some other negators such as đâu.
Not to be confused with ạ (politeness particle).