En/Dans = in/to + regions/states/counties (French Prepositions)

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE

Last updated: 2024-07-01

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We know that regions, states or counties have genders in French, see Continents/countries/counties/regions/states are masculine, feminine or plural in French (Gender).

Note that while we always use to in English for these places, in French we use different prepositions for one or the other.

à with cities, see À = To/in and De = From/of with cities in French (French Prepositions of Location)
en/au/aux with countries and continents, see En/au/aux = In/to with countries and continents (French Prepositions)

Using "en" or "dans" with regions, states and counties in French

Look at these examples:

J'habite dans le New Jersey.I live in New Jersey.

Mon frère va en Californie tous les étés.My brother goes to California every summer.

Mes parents habitent en Provence.My parents live in Provence.

Nous allons dans l'Illinois pour les vacances.We're going to Illinois for the holidays.

Martin et Louise ont une maison dans le Limousin.Martin and Louise have a house in the Limousin region.

Ils habitent dans le Yorkshire.They live in Yorkshire.

Lise aime passer l'été en Cornouailles.Lise likes to spend the summer in Cornwall.

Here is the rule to express in or to:

- You use en with feminine regions/states/counties (usually ending in -e)

- You use dans le with masculine regions/states/counties starting with a consonant or aspirated h.

- You use dans l' with masculine regions/states/counties starting with a vowel or mute h.

Note that en is also acceptable for reasons of pronunciation:

Nadia habite dans l'Ontario.Nadia lives in Ontario.

Nadia habite en Ontario.Nadia lives in Ontario.

EXCEPTIONS:

These states use au instead of dans le:

Mon oncle habite au Texas.My uncle lives in Texas.

Tu habites au Nouveau-Mexique.You live in New Mexico.

Note that the province of Le Québec behaves like a country in French:

Martine habite au Québec.Martine lives in Quebec.

Cases of Swiss cantons

Here are the main rules to talk about Swiss cantons:

- If the canton's name is the same as its main city (Genève, Berne, Bâle, Zurich, Saint Gall, etc), then you use dans le canton de, in order to avoid any confusion with the city itself:

L'été dernier, on a campé dans le canton de Genève.Last summer, we camped in the canton of Geneva.

Notre hôtel dans le canton de Saint Gall était super !Our hotel in the canton of St. Gallen/Gall was great!

Except for the canton/city of Appenzell

Mes grand-parents vivent en Appenzell-Rhodes extérieures.My grandparents live in Appenzell Ausserrhoden.

- If the canton's name is different (Tessin, Argovie, Thurgovie, etc), then you follow the regular rules:

Il y a de belles montagnes dans le Jura.There are beautiful montains in Jura.

Nous passons nos vacances en Argovie.We're spending our holiday [US:vacation] in the canton of Aargau.

Je vais passer deux semaines dans les Grisons.I'm going to spend two weeks in the canton of Graubünden/Grisons.

Exception: Valais is masculine, but

Je suis suisse, et j'habite en Valais.I'm Swiss, and I live in the canton of Valais.

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