Verified answer

Supposing you know when to use "à" and "de", the answer to your question is this :

You need to know the gender of each French noun of course . When you learn a new noun in french you have to learn if it's "un" or "une". When you know that you do this :

For a feminine noun use "à la " and "de la " .

" je vais à la maison", " je viens de la maison" .( la maison is feminine )

For a masculine noun use "au" and " du" .

" Je vais au collège", " Je viens du collège" .( le collège is masculine ).

NOTE : when the noun starts with a vowel, you kave to elide "le" and "la" so you must use "à l' "and "de l' ", both for masculine and feminine nouns .

" Je vais à l'ouest","Je viens de l'ouest" ( l'ouest is masculine ), " Je vais à l'armée", "Je viens de l'armée" ( l'armée is feminine ) .

All this above concerned singular nouns . For plural it's easier because there are no differences between masculine and feminine, starting with a vowel or not . If the following noun is a plural, always use " aux" and "des" .

" Je vais aux Etats-Unis", "Je viens des Etats-Unis" , " Je vais aux Antilles", "Je viens des Antilles". ( Les Etats-Unis is masculine plural, les Antilles is feminine plural )

Prepositions are words which link two related parts of a sentence. There are many French prepositions and it is important to recognize and know when and when not to use them. These lessons include specific information about meaning, usage, and more.