à vs de

Question

when writing about being somewhere, when do you use à and when do you use de?

Accepted Answer

Tom, 
the attached lesson is the one you want and is referenced in the lesson you have linked. 
 https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/how-to-use-a-to-in-and-de-from-of-with-cities-prepositions

Answer

thank you! i meant more so with places such as you use de when talking about le marche, but a for la plage- is it because marché is masculin but plage is feminine?

Answer

Tom,

I think you may be referring to the contraction of ‘ (à le) marché ‘ to ‘ au marché ‘, and of ‘ (de le) marché ‘ to ‘ du marché’ ? If so, yes, contraction occurs only with le or les, not with l’ or la. That is, contraction only occurs with masculine nouns that do not start with a vowel or h muët, or plural nouns, preceded by a definite article, le or les.

Most cities do not have a definite article in their name, and do not take a definite article grammatically, so contraction is not an issue with them. See the note in the lesson about Le Havre as an example of one of the exceptions.

Hope this addresses your question - if not, expand further and will try to clarify.

Definite articles contract with à and de in French (French Contracted Articles)

À = To/in and De = From/of with cities in French (French Prepositions of Location)