à

See also: Appendix:Variations of "a"
à U+00E0, à
LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
Composition:a [U+0061] + ̀ [U+0300]
ß
[U+00DF]
Latin-1 Supplement á
[U+00E1]

Translingual

Letter

à (upper case À)

  1. The letter a with a grave accent.

See also


Danish

Alternative forms

Preposition

à (unofficial but common)

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

Dutch

Etymology

From French à.

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Preposition

à

  1. indicates an approximate number
    Kook 2 à 3 aardappelen per persoon.Boil 2 or/to 3 potatoes per person.
  2. indicates the price etc. per piece
    10 blikjes à 0,06 € is 0,60 € in totaal.10 cans at €0.06 a piece is €0.60 in total.

French

Etymology

From Old French a, from Latin ad, from Proto-Indo-European *ád (near; at).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a/
  • (France, Paris) IPA(key): [a]
  • Rhymes: -a

Letter

à (lower case, upper case 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. European usage is sometimes to omit accents, though the French Academy considers it incorrect.[1] This is partly due to the keyboard layout used in France. Quebec usage is to put accents on capitals.

Preposition

à

  1. to (destination)
    Je vais à Paris.I am going to Paris.
    aller au boutgo to the end / go all the way
  2. to (until)
    Le spectacle sera de 18h à 21h.The show will be from 6 pm 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 heuresI am leaving at five.
    à dix heures et quartat quarter past ten
  5. at, in, on (said of a particular place)
    à la maisonat home
    à l'hôtelat the hotel
    au barin the bar
    au boisin the woods
    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.
    le chien à MarieMary's dog [nonstandard]
  7. till, until (used in farewells)
    Salut, à demain.Bye, till tomorrow. / Bye, see you tomorrow.
    à plus tardsee you later
  8. (cooking) cooked in or with
    Steak au poivreSteak with pepper sauce
  9. Used to make compound nouns to state what something is used for
    moulin à poivrepepper mill
    sac à dosbackpack
    boite à musiquemusic 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 battrethe team to beat
  11. Used to describe a part of something, often translated into English as a compound adjective
    un animal à quatre pattesa four-legged animal
    une femme au visage pâlea pale-faced woman
    un homme à longue barbea long-bearded man OR a man with a long beard
    une chemise à manches courtesa short-sleeved shirt
    une maison aux murs de briquea brick-walled house / a house with brick walls
  12. by
    peu à peubit by bit
    minute à minuteminute by minute
    jour à jourday by day
  13. or, to (used to express an approximate number)
    six à sept personnessix or seven people
    vingt à trente anstwenty/thirty years
    tous les cinq à six ansevery five or six years
  14. Used to indicate the recipient of certain phrasal verb.
    mettre le feu àto set fire to
    clouer le bec àto shut (someone) up
    donner la chasse àto give chase to
    • 1836, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XL, in Louis Viardot, transl., L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume I, Paris: J[acques]-J[ulien] Dubochet et Cie, éditeurs, [], OCLC 763899327:
      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 [] .
  15. with
    On peut remarquer, à ce propos, que ce n'est pas non plus dans des livre à prétention plus ou moins scientifique que Kraus avait l'habitude de chercher les instruments dont il avait besoin pour la déscription et l'expliquation.It may also be noticed, on this matter, that it is also not on books with more or less scientific pretentions that Kraus used to search for the instruments which he needed for description and explanation. ("Et Satan conduit le bal..." Kraus, Hitler & le nazisme, by Jacques Bouveresse, which is an introduction to the book La Troisième nuit de Walpurgis, by Karl Kraus, translated by Pierre Deshusses)

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.

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

References

Further reading


German

Etymology

Borrowed from French à.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a/
  • (file)

Preposition

à

  1. (business, colloquial, dated) at (a specified price or rate of exchange)
    3 Stück à 20 Euro3 pieces at 20 Euros each

Further reading

  • à in Duden online

Italian

Verb

à

  1. Obsolete spelling of ha, third-person singular present indicative of avere

Ladin

Verb

à

  1. third-person singular present indicative of avei - has
  2. third-person plural present indicative of avei - have

Ligurian

Verb

à

  1. third-person singular present indicative of avéi: has

Mandarin

Romanization

à (Zhuyin ㄚˋ)

  1. Pinyin transcription of
  2. Pinyin transcription of

Matal

Pronoun

à

  1. he, she

Middle French

Preposition

à

  1. (16th century onwards) Alternative form of a, at; to
    • 1537, Cicero (original author), Epistres familiaires traduictz de latin en francois et nouvellement imprimez link
      on les vend à Paris
      They are being sold in Paris

Ngam

Alternative forms

Etymology

Cognate to Sar à

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈa˨/

Particle

à

  1. initial interrogative particle on a question

References

Keegan, John (2014). The Eastern Sara Languages. Ceunca, Spain: Morkeg Books. p. 223.

  • Mudiwa, Olukayode (2001). An Analysis of Proto-Sara. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Addis Ababa Books. p. 156.

Norman

Etymology

From Latin ad.

Preposition

à

  1. to, at

Noun

à m (plural às)

  1. at sign
    Synonyms: colînmachon, siez

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a/
  • Rhymes: -a

Contraction

à

  1. Contraction of a a (to/at the).
    Vou à praia.
    I’m going to the beach.

Quotations

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:ao.

Preposition

à

  1. Misspelling of a.
  2. Clipping of à moda de.

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish ass, a (out of), 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:
Person Number Prepositional pronoun Prepositional pronoun (emphatic)
Singular 1st asam asamsa
2nd asad asadsa
3rd m às às-san
3rd f aiste aistese
Plural 1st asainn asainne
2nd asaibh asaibhse
3rd asta astasan

Further reading

  • Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • 7 a” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Spanish

Preposition

à

  1. Obsolete spelling of a

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from French à.

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


Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Interjection

à

  1. oh; I see

Particle

à

  1. Question particle.
    Thế à?
    Really?
    Cháu mới về à?
    So you've come back.
    Nhóm mày có bốn người thôi à?
    There's only four members in your group, isn't there?

Usage notes

  • In contrast to không which is used to make a yes-no question, à is used to seek confirmation, roughly equivalent to Japanese (ne) or the English use of tag questions. Compare to nhỉ, which is similar to Japanese (yo) in that it is used to make a light assertion or remark.
  • Not to be confused with (politeness particle).
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