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a & à explained


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One thing you might find confusing in French is where to put "a" and where to put "à". But before focusing on where and how to remember where should we put them, we should rather take a look first on what it means. After all, that's better to know what you write.

So, this "a" is often placed like "Il a un ordinateur", meaning "He has a computer". "a" basically means "have", and not "one" or "unity" of something. But that's not the same meaning for "à".

When it comes to "à", you may see it rather in a sentence like "Je vais à la plage", meaning "I go to the beach". "à", rather means "to" or "at", and can be used for the time (for example, "Je viens à 11 heures", "I come at 11:00") or for location.

One way to remember what you should use: inside your sentence, can you replace "a" with "avoir" (roughly "have" in English)? If yes, use "a", otherwise use "à". It works. You can't have 11 hours. You come at 11 hours.

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