Language/French/Grammar/Fused-forms-of-the-definite-article
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French Grammar - Fused forms of the definite article
Definite articles fuse with preceding de or à:
- du (= de + le) pain
- de l'effort à l'école
- des (= de + les) épices
- au (= à + le) cinéma
- aux (= à + les) animaux
Such contraction is only possible with articles, however. It is not possible when le, la, les are pronouns (see Chapter 3.2): J'ai essayé de le comprendre T tried to understand it' [NOT J'ai essayé du comprendre].
An archaic contraction of en les to es is still found in the set phrase: licencié es lettres 'Bachelor of Arts'.