{"id":22417,"date":"2015-09-03T23:18:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T21:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22417"},"modified":"2017-10-24T11:39:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T09:39:02","slug":"which-stateprovince-are-you-from-expression-location-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/which-stateprovince-are-you-from-expression-location-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"Which State\/Province Are You From? Expressing Location in French"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been writing about prepositions with certain<\/a> verbs<\/a> lately, but today I’d like to discuss prepositions referring to American states and Canadian provinces (still worth reading if you’re not from those places – can never have too much grammar \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n

A while back, we wrote a post on how to say you’re from, living in, or going to a country or city. You can and should the whole post here<\/a>, but for a TL;DR<\/a> summary:<\/p>\n

If the country is masculine and starts with a consonant:
\n<\/em>to\/in: au<\/strong>
\nfrom: du<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the country is masculine and starts with a vowel:
\n<\/em>to\/in: en<\/strong>
\nfrom: d’<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the country is feminine:
\n<\/em>to\/in: en<\/strong>
\nfrom: de\/d’<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the county is plural:
\n<\/em>to\/in: aux<\/strong>
\nfrom: des<\/strong><\/p>\n

For singular cities\/islands:
\n<\/em>to\/in: \u00e0*<\/strong>
\nfrom: de\/d’<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a plural island:
\n<\/em>to\/in: aux<\/strong>
\nfrom: des<\/strong><\/p>\n

* = There are 2 exceptions to this: Avignon (#9<\/a>) and Arles, which can use en<\/strong>. You’ll hear \u00e0<\/strong> more often, though.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Ok, so now that we’re an expert on that, let’s move on to how you say the same, but from an American state or Canadian province. The rules are similar, but some of the prepositions may change.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, to know which preposition to use, you need to know if the state or province. Of the 50 states, 9 are feminine. Of the 13 provinces, 6 are feminine. I’ve included a list below the rules.<\/p>\n

So here’s how it goes:<\/p>\n

Masculine state\/province beginning with a consonant:
\n<\/em>to\/in: dans le OR au
\nfrom: du<\/p>\n

Masculine state\/province starts with a vowel:
\n<\/em>to\/in: dans l’<\/strong> OR en<\/strong>
\nfrom: de l<\/strong>‘ OR d’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feminine state\/province:
\n<\/em>to\/in: en<\/strong>
\n<\/em>from: de<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are there exceptions? Mais bien s\u00fbr, c’est le fran\u00e7ais<\/strong> (of course, this is French!)!<\/p>\n

The two exceptions are New York and Washington. Can you guess why?<\/p>\n

It’s to distinguish the state from the city with the same name. For the states, you’d say<\/p>\n

dans\/de l’\u00e9tat de Washington<\/strong>
\n dans\/de l’\u00e9tat de New York<\/strong><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

So for my own personal story, I could say:<\/p>\n

Je suis n\u00e9 en Virginie, mais j’ai grandi en Virginie-Occidentale. Maintenant, j’habite en Californie \u00e0 San Francisco.<\/strong> \u00a0(I was born in Virginia, but I grew up in West Virginia. Now I live in San Francisco, California.)<\/p>\n

L’ann\u00e9e derni\u00e8re pour mon anniversaire<\/a>, je suis all\u00e9 dans l’\u00e9tat de New York pour voir la com\u00e9die-musicale Wicked<\/em>. Cette ann\u00e9e, je vais dans le Nevada pour visiter Las Vegas.<\/strong> \u00a0(Last year for my birthday, I went to New York to see the musical Wicked<\/em>. This year, I’m going to Nevada to visit Las Vegas.)<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Here are the states. Those with a single asterisk beside them are feminine. I’ve also included a translation of the states whose names are a little different in French.<\/p>\n

Alabama
\nAlaska
\nArizona
\nArkansas
\n*Californie (California)
\n*Caroline du Nord (North Carolina)
\n*Caroline du Sud (South Carolina)
\nColorado
\nConnecticut
\nDakota du Nord (North Dakota)
\nDakota du Sud (South Dakota)
\nDelaware
\n*Floride (Florida)
\n*G\u00e9orgie (Georgia)
\nHawa\u00ef (Hawaii)
\nIdaho
\nIllinois
\nIndiana
\nIowa
\nKansas
\nKentucky
\n*Louisiane (Louisiana)
\nMaine
\nMaryland
\nMassachusetts
\nMichigan
\nMinnesota
\nMississippi
\nMissouri
\nMontana
\nNebraska
\nNevada
\nNew Hampshire
\nNew Jersey
\nl’\u00e9tat de New York** (New York)
\nNouveau-Mexique (New Mexico)
\nOhio
\nOklahoma
\nOregon
\n*Pennsylvanie (Pennsylvania)
\nRhode Island
\nTennessee
\nTexas
\nUtah
\nVermont
\n*Virginie (Virginia)
\n*Virginie-Occidentale (West Virginia)
\nl’\u00e9tat de Washington** (Washington)
\nWisconsin
\nWyoming<\/p>\n

** = see the note above!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And for the Canadian provinces:<\/p>\n

*Alberta
\n*Colombie-Britannique (British Columbia)
\n*l’\u00eele du Prince-\u00c9douard (Prince Edward Island)
\nManitoba
\n(territoires du) Nord-Ouest \u00a0(Northwest Territories)
\nNouveau-Brunswick (New Brunswick)
\n*Nouvelle-\u00c9cosse (Nova Scotia)
\nNunavut
\nOntario
\nQu\u00e9bec (Quebec)
\n*Saskatchewan
\n*Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador (Newfoundland and Labrador)
\n(territoire du) Yukon (Yukon (Territory))<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

So readers, tell me about yourself! Where are you from? Where have you traveled?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I’ve been writing about prepositions with certain verbs lately, but today I’d like to discuss prepositions referring to American states and Canadian provinces (still worth reading if you’re not from those places – can never have too much grammar \ud83d\ude09 ) A while back, we wrote a post on how to say you’re from, living…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":22419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[4540,10102,2419,6548,2544],"class_list":["post-22417","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-canada","tag-etats-unis","tag-preposition","tag-provinces","tag-states"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t