French grammar: Topic: les articles contractes The formation and usage of the french contracted articles

1. Les articles contractés
What is or are the contracted articles?

2. Observe these sentences:
- I am going to the school.
- The father of the little boy is a
doctor.
In the above sentences the group of
words to the and of the are made up
of the prepositions to and of + the
definite article “the”

3. We can do the same in French
too, by combining the
prepositions à and de with the
definite articles:
à = to, at ,in
de = of , from
+
Le , la, l’, les

4. And we get the “articles contractés”
but the actual contraction takes place
only with the masculine and the plural
form of the definite article:
Observe

5. à + le = au
à + la = à la
à + l’ = à l’ to the, at the , in the
à + les = aux
De + le = du
De + la = de la
De + l’ = de l’ of the, from the
De + les = des
* Note: observe the contraction in blue
colour

6. Lets see some examples
- Je vais au restaurant.
- Il va à la piscine.
- Nous allons à l’école.
- Ils vont aux toilettes.
- C’est le vélo du garçon.
- C’est la mère de la fille.
- C’est le lait de l’enfant.
- Ce sont les livres des étudiants.

7. Important
 With proper nouns we must not use the
contracted articles only the prepositions:
Ex:
- Je parle à Marie
- C’est le vélo de Paul

8. Maintenant à vous