Why “aller à Québec” is a mistake
Stop making these common mistakes with cities and countries
Here’s one of the most common mistakes people make in French, when talking about their next trip to Quebec. They say…
Je pars en voyage à Québec la semaine prochaine.
Well, you just said you’re going to Quebec City! But generally, people mean “the province of Quebec.”
Let’s sort this out, once and for all.
It can be difficult to talk about cities, countries, and provinces in French. Why?
Most countries and provinces have an article (le or la).
Most cities don’t have an article.
Different prepositions are used for different regions.
Some exceptions are made for islands, even if they are countries.
First, let’s start with cities.
Les villes
Most cities don’t have article, just like in English.
We say Montreal and not the Montreal.
Montréal
Québec (Quebec City)
Paris
Londres
Ottawa
We also don’t say Quebec City in French. The name of the city is Québec (without an article). It’s also referred to as la Capitale nationale and sometimes la ville de Québec, but the latter is more used administratively.
Montréal est une belle ville, mais je préfère Québec
Montreal is a beautiful city, but I prefer Quebec City
Je fais un voyage au Québec
I’m traveling to Québec (the province)
Je m’en vais à Québec
I’m going to Quebec City
J’aime beaucoup le Québec
I love Quebec (the province)
J’aime beaucoup Québec
I love Quebec City
So it’s a mistake to say Je m’en vais à Québec to talk about the province. S’en aller à Québec means going to Quebec City. S’en aller au Québec means going to the province.
A few exceptions
The vast majority of cities don’t have articles, but some do.
Le Caire (Cairo)
La Havane (Havana)
La Nouvelle-Orléans
La Malbaie
With the rare cities that have articles, you have to contract the articles with the prepositions according to French grammar rules.
J’ai vécu deux ans au Caire
I lived for two years in Cairo
Je suis allé à La Malbaie
Lors de notre voyage à Cuba, nous n’avons pas eu la chance de visiter La Havane
During our trip to Cuba, we didn't have the chance to visit Havana
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Pays, provinces, États
Countries, provinces, and states can be masculine, feminine or plural.
Generally, those ending in “e” tend to be feminine
La Californie
La Slovénie
La Floride
La Belgique
Those starting with a vowel use l’ – and are considered feminine
L’Autriche
L’Italie
L’Angleterre
Those ending with other vowels, like “a,” tend to be masculine
Le Canada
Le Manitoba
Plural countries and regions
Some countries are plural, such as:
Les États-Unis
Les Philippines
Exceptions with US states
Some US states are also the names of well-known cities. Those states don’t have an article, and to refer to them, we use dans l’État de.
À New York
Here: the city
Dans l’État de New York
In New York (state)
À Washington
Here: Washington D.C.
Dans l’État de Washington
In Washington (State)
Islands
Islands, even when they represent entire nations or countries, tend to not use an article, especially if they are small.
Bali
Roatan
Hawaii
Haïti
Singapour
However, some larger island-nations use an article
La Jamaïque
La Nouvelle-Zélande
Prepositions
Putting it all together, cities, islands and other places that don’t use an article, just use a standard preposition, or no preposition, depending on what the phrase requires.
J’habite à Montréal
J’aime Québec
Je suis allée à Hawaii
Masculine countries and states
Masculine countries combine the preposition à and the article le – to use au.
Je vais au Canada
Je m’en vais au Québec
Feminine Countries or States
To mean “to a certain country,” or “in a certain country,” feminine countries and states use the preposition en.
Je vais en France
J’habite en Californie
Of course, only the article is used when the context doesn’t call for a preposition.
J’aime la Californie
J’aime la France
Plural Countries
Plural countries use the word aux, that combines the preposition à and the plural article les.
Je vais aux États-Unis une fois par année
Elle vient des Philippines
Les régions au Québec
Regions and neighborhoods in a city operate with the same logic — they each have their own article, or lack of article, but they often use different prepositions. It would be difficult to learn this by heart for every place in the world, so let me just summarize the main prepositions used to talk about the different regions of Quebec and neighborhoods of Montreal.
J’habite…
Dans les Cantons de l’Est
En Estrie
En Mauricie
Au Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean
Sur la Côte Nord
En Gaspésie
Dans les Laurentides
Dans Lanaudière
Les quartiers de Montréal
This is going to drive you crazy, but Montreal neighborhoods also have their own prepositions! In the past, some of these neighborhoods used to be separate cities, so that’s why some of them use the preposition à, as if they were cities.
Most other neighborhoods use the prepositions dans.
And finally, le Plateau uses the preposition sur.
J’habite…
Sur le Plateau
À Griffintown
À Outremont
À Westmount
Dans Rosemont
À ou dans St-Henri
À Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Dans le quartier chinois
Dans le Vieux-Montréal
Dans le Village
Dans le Quartier Latin
Dans le Mile-End
Dans la Petite-Italie
Dans le Centre-Ville
À Verdun
À NDG
I believe I have covered everything! Hope this was useful.
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Bonne pratique,
Frédéric