En/au/aux = In/to with countries and continents (French Prepositions)

In French, to express in/to + [country], you can use en / au / aux  depending on the gender of the country.

Learn how to say "in/to a country" in French

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

Note that while we always use in and to in English for cities and countries, in French we use different prepositions for one or the other.
We use à with cities À = To/in and De = From/of with cities in French (French Prepositions of Location), it's a bit more complicated when it comes to countries.

Have a look at these examples:

Je vais en France ce weekend.I'm going to France this weekend.

Il est en Angleterre maintenant.He's in England now.

On est au Portugal.We are in Portugal.

Vous allez aux États-Unis.You are going to the United States.

Ils vont au Pays de Galles.They are going to Wales.

Here are the rules:

- en is used with feminine countries (the ones ending in -e, except for Mexique, Cambodge, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Belize) and continents (all of them are feminine)

- au is used with masculine countries

ATTENTION: 

For pronunciation reasons, you will use en with masculine countries starting with a vowel:

Mon ami Sahid vit en Iran.My friend Sahid lives in Iran.

J'ai passé mon été en Ouganda.I spent my summer in Uganda.

- aux is used with plural countries

Note that Le Québec behaves like a country, even though it's a province:

Martine habite au Québec.Martine lives in Quebec.

 

See also the related lesson: En/Dans = in/to + regions/states/counties (French Prepositions)

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Learn more about these related French grammar topics

Examples and resources

Jacqueline Doiron of FrenchByPhone.com presents "Prepositions with names of countries" = Jacqueline Doiron de FrenchByPhone.com présent "Les prepositions et les noms de pays"
Il est en Angleterre maintenant.He's in England now.
On est au Portugal.We are in Portugal.
Ils vont au Pays de Galles.They are going to Wales.
Je vais en France ce weekend.I'm going to France this weekend.
Je vais en Afrique l'été prochain.I'm going to Africa next summer.
J'ai passé mon été en Ouganda.I spent my summer in Uganda.
Mon ami Sahid vit en Iran.My friend Sahid lives in Iran.
Martine habite au Québec.Martine lives in Quebec.
Martin habite aux Pays-Bas.Martin lives in the Netherlands.
Simon va au Mexique.Simon is going to Mexico.
Vous allez aux États-Unis.You are going to the United States.
Je voudrais voyager en Amérique du sud.I would like to travel in South America.
Mon oncle vit en Asie.My uncle lives in Asia.
Ce film se passe en Inde.This film takes place in India.
Let me take a look at that...