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What French Prepositions

Go With Countries and
Continents?
First determine the gender, then you can find the preposition

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By
ThoughtCo Team
Updated on February 02, 2019

When trying to determine which French preposition to use with the French
name for a country or continent, the only difficulty is determining the gender of
that name. Here are some sources and guidelines.

Countries
To learn the gender of a country, look up the French name on our master list of
all countries in the world. You'll notice that 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

You will be applying the right prepositions to a vast array of countries. So how
many countries are there in the world? National Geographic says that "at last
count, there were 195 independent countries"; how we define a country depends
on a complex underpinning of delicate politics and international relations. But
United Nations membership guides us.

The 195 total includes the 193 member states of the United Nations and two
states with nonmember observer status: the Holy See and the State of Palestine.

The 195 total does not include: Taiwan (the People's Republic of China was
declared the true political China in 1971, and so Taiwan lost its status then), the
Cook Islands and Niue (states in free association with New Zealand that are
neither member states nor nonmember observer states), dependencies (or
dependent territories, dependent areas), autonomous territories, and other
countries that the United Nations does not recognize as self-governing.

Continents
The French names of all continents end in e, and all are feminine. In French,
there are five major continents, which include: l’Afrique, l’Amérique, l’Asie,
l'Europe, and l'Océanie, on which the five rings of the Olympic flag are
based. But they become seven if you add l'Antarctique and if you count deux
("two") Amériques, according to l'Encyclopédie Larousse.

National Geographic differs. Here's how there could be seven, six, or five
continents:

By convention, there are seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South
America, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. Some geographers list only six
continents, combining Europe and Asia into Eurasia. In parts of the world,
students learn that there are just five continents: Eurasia, Australia, Africa,
Antarctica, and the Americas.

To some geographers, however, "continent" is not just a physical term; it also

carries cultural connotations. For example, Europe and Asia are physically part of
the same landmass, but the two areas are culturally diverse. (That is, the various
 y
cultural groups in Asia have more in common with one another than with those of
Europe.)

Oceania is the collective name for the lands of the Pacific Ocean, including
Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Oceania is a convenient way to name these
areas, which, with the exception of Australia, are not part of any continent. But
Oceania itself is not a continent.

Find the Gender and Then the Preposition

Back to finding the right preposition for these subdivisions on a globe of the
world. Once you know the gender, it is a simple matter of deciding which
preposition to use. Note, however, that Islands follow their own rules, so you'll
have to look up the French name for each in a French dictionary or
encyclopedia to determine its gender and number. Fidji, for instance, is
masculine and plural to reflect the 333 tropical islands in its group.

These are the correct prepositions according to gender and number:

1. Masculine and plural countries: à or de, plus the

appropriate definite article.

Except: masculine countries that begin with a vowel, which take en to

mean "to" or "in" and d' to mean "from."

2. Feminine countries and continents: en or de with no article.

Table of Prepositions for Countries and Continents

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 Feminine Plural Continent

country country country

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.

Cite this Article

Masculine and Feminine French Nouns

How to Say the Countries of the World
~ Noms
in French

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Islands
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Geographical Names

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