Transcript of the video

I went to the cinema, I chose the film at random.

Do you hear the mistake in this sentence?

You too, you hesitate a lot between "à la", "au", "à le" when you speak in French? It's normal.

In this video, I will explain the rule and give you examples to help you understand and integrate the rule.

Welcome to this new French lesson. I am Elisabeth and welcome to HelloFrench.

Every week, I post videos to help you improve your French.

When you have a feminine word that begins with a consonant or an aspirated H, you must use the preposition "à la".

I drink a lot of peppermint syrup. I am looking for a job that matches my ambitions.

So, you see, "height" is a word with an aspirated h. So I'm going to use the determiner "the". I say "to the height".

When the preposition "to" is in front of a determiner and a masculine noun, it changes to "to the". There is no such thing as "to the".

You must always say "to".

"I ate at the restaurant."

"I chose this movie at random." you have an aspirated H, so it's definitely "at".

In the plural, whether feminine or masculine, it will always be "a u x ".

"I made an apple pie"

If the word starts with a vowel or a silent H, you will use "a l'", so "a" and "l'".

"I'm sleeping in a hotel tonight."

"I'm cold, I'm going inside."

You heard me talking about a silent H and an aspirated H, it may seem a bit complex to you, so I'm going to explain to you what the difference is and especially how to tell the difference between a silent H and an aspirated H, because it will help you a lot to choose the right preposition.

When there is a silent H, it means that we don't need to take it into account. It's as if it doesn't exist. It's as if the word starts with the vowel.

This is the case, for example, with the words "hotel" or "man".

There is therefore no impact on the link with the preceding word.

You pretend that there is no H, so you practice the correct binding as you would if the word started with a vowel.

For example, I'll say, "The most beautiful hotels are in Paris."

Do you hear me? I'm making the connection. "The most beautiful hotels."

The determiner of these nouns will be an "l'".

Conversely, in words that begin with an aspirated "h", there will be an impact on the link.

"Height" is a word that begins with an aspirated "h".

"Hedgehog is a word that begins with an aspirated H."

You see here, in determining, it's going to be the and the. It's not going to be the. When you have an aspirated H, there's no binding.

I don't say "beautiful hedgehogs".

No, I say "beautiful hedgehogs". The connection is broken.

Download the exercise sheet in the video description to test yourself on this lesson.

That's it for today.

I hope this video will help you to stop confusing all those little words that are a headache for people learning French.

If you liked the video, of course, put a "like" and if you are new, subscribe and activate the bell so you don't miss any of my videos.

See you soon