à

Character	à
Unicode name	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
Latin-1 Supplement	U+00E0

See also Appendix:Variations of "a"

Translingual

Letter

à lower case (upper case À)

1. The letter a with a grave accent.

See also

• (Latin script):  Aa  Bb  Cc  Dd  Ee  Ff  Gg  Hh  Ii  Jj  Kk  Ll  Mm  Nn  Oo  Pp  Qq  Rr  Ss  Tt  Uu  Vv  Ww  Xx  Yy  Zz
• (Variations of letter A):   Áá  Àà  Ââ  Ǎǎ  Ăă  Ãã  Ảả  Ȧȧ  Ạạ  Ää  Åå  Ḁḁ  Āā  Ąą  ᶏ  Ⱥⱥ  Ȁȁ  Ấấ  Ầầ  Ẫẫ  Ẩẩ  Ậậ  Ắắ  Ằằ  Ẵẵ  Ẳẳ  Ặặ  Ǻǻ  Ǡǡ  Ǟǟ  Ȁȁ  Ȃȃ  Ɑɑ  ᴀ  Ɐɐ  ɒ  Ａａ Ææ  Ǽǽ  Ǣǣ  Ꜳꜳ  Ꜵꜵ  Ꜷꜷ  Ꜹꜹ  Ꜻꜻ
• (Letters using grave accent or double grave accent):  Àà  Ȁȁ  Ằằ  Ầầ  Èè  Ȅȅ  Ềề  Ḕḕ  Ìì  Ȉȉ  Ǹǹ  Òò  Ȍȍ  Ờờ  Ṑṑ  Ồồ  Ȑȑ  Ùù  Ȕȕ  Ǜǜ  Ừừ  Ẁẁ  Ỳỳ

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Danish

Alternative forms

• a

Preposition

à (unofficial but common)

1. of, of...each, each containing
2. at
3. to, or

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Preposition

à

1. to

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French

Etymology

From Latin ad.

Pronunciation

• (FR) IPA: /a/, X-SAMPA: /a/
• à (France, Paris) IPA: [a]

• Rhymes: -a

Letter

à (lower case, upper case A, alternate usage À)

1. 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. Quebec usage is normally to put accents on capitals, European usage usually does not put accents on capitals.

Preposition

à

1. to (destination)

   Je vais à Paris. -- I am going to Paris.

   aller au bout - go to the end / go all the way

2. to (until)

   Le spectacle sera de 18h à 21h. -- The show will be from 6pm to 9 pm.

3. on the, to (some directions)

   tournez à gauche ! - turn [to the] left!

   tournez à droite ! - turn [to the] right

   Le vent vire au nord. - The wind turns north.

   L'école est à gauche. - The school is on the left.

4. at (said of a particular time)

   Je pars à cinq heures. -- I am leaving at five.

   à dix heures et quart - at quarter past ten

5. at, in, on (said of a particular place)

   à la maison - at home

   à l'hôtel - at the hotel

   au bar - in the bar

   J'habite à trois kilomètres d'ici.- I live three kilometers from here.

6. of (belonging to)

   C'est un ami à moi. -- This is a friend of mine.

   Cette voiture est à John. -- This is John's car.

   (nonstandard) le chien à Marie -- Mary's dog

7. till, until (used in farewells)

   Salut, à demain. -- Bye, till tomorrow/Bye, see you tomorrow

   à plus tard - see you later

8. (cooking) cooked in or with

   Steak au poivre -- Steak with pepper sauce

9. 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

10. (before an infinitive) to (used to express something not completed)

    Il y a de nombreuses choses à faire. - There are many things to do.

    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

11. 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 OR 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

12. by

    peu à peu - bit by bit

    minute à minute - minute by minute

    jour à jour - day by day

13. or, to (used to express an approximate number)

    six à sept personnes - six or seven people

    vingt à trente ans - twenty/thirty years

    tous les cinq à six ans - every five or six years

14. 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

    • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume 1, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter XL:

      Bien que la faim et le dénûment nous tourmentassent quelquefois, et même à peu près toujours, rien ne nous causait autant de tourment que d’être témoins des cruautés inouïes que mon maître exerçait sur les chrétiens. Chaque jour il en faisait pendre quelqu’un ; on empalait celui-là, on coupait les oreilles à celui-ci […] .

      Even though hunger and destitution tormented us sometimes, and even almost always, nothing caused us as much torment as being witnesses to the unheard-of cruelties that my master exercised on the Christians. Every day, he made someone hang; they impaled that one, they cut the ears off of this one […] .

Derived terms

When followed by a definite article, à is combined with the article to give the following combined forms:

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

• à bientôt
• à la fois
• jusqu'à

Usage notes

• Expresses a report/ratio of place (to), time (at), possession (of or 's), means, manner, price.
• Introduces a complement of indirect object or a complement of attribution, a complement of the name or adjective.
• Some intransitive verbs in French use à before the indirect object, e.g. réussir à, jouer à. In these cases, the à is not translated into English.

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German

Etymology

From French.

Preposition

à

1. (very dated) at (a specified price or rate of exchange)

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Guernésiais

Etymology

From Latin ad.

Preposition

à

1. to, at

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Jèrriais

Etymology

From Latin ad.

Preposition

à

1. to, at

Noun

à m (plural às)

1. at sign

Synonyms

• colînmachon
• siez

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Mandarin

Romanization

à (form of a4 with diacritic)

1. See 阾

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Middle French

Preposition

à

1. (late Middle French) Alternative form of a, at; to

Verb

à

1. Alternative form of a; third-person present singular indicative of avoir

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a/

Contraction

à

1. Contraction of a a (“to/at the”).
   • 2000, Lya Wyler (translator), J. K. Rowling (English author), Harry Potter e a Câmara Secreta (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), Rocco, page 217:

     Quando tiver uma dúvida, vá à biblioteca.

     When you are in doubt, go to the library.

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Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish ass, a (“out of”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs. Cognate of Latin ex-. Compare Irish as.

Preposition

à

1. from

Synonyms

• bho
• o

Usage notes

• Before the definite article the form às is used instead.

Derived terms

• The following prepositional pronouns:

Combining pronoun	Prepositional pronoun	Prepositional pronoun (emphatic)
mi	asam	asamsa
tu	asad	asadsa
e	às	às-san
i	aiste	aistese
sinn	asainn	asainne
sibh	asaibh	asaibhse
iad	asta	astasan

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Swedish

Preposition

à

1. ... to ...

   2 à 3 kg

   2 to 3 kilograms

2. @, at, each

   2 st à 1 kr

   2 pieces at 1 krona each

References

• à in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)

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Vietnamese

Interjection

à

1. Expression of surprise.

Particle

à

1. Question particle.