How do you say "à, au, à la, aux" in French?

‘À, au, à la, aux’ are all forms of the French preposition ‘à’. This preposition changes form depending on the whether the word it refers to is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural. It can mean a bewildering array of things, including ‘to’, ‘with’, ‘for’, ‘in the style of’, depending on the context.

• à point - medium-rare
• à l’ail - ‘with garlic’. The reason for the ‘l’ in front of ‘ail’ is that two vowels following each other sound clumsy. Another example is ‘à l’Italienne’ – ‘in the Italian style’
• au gratin – ‘gratin’ is a masculine noun – for this reason the masculine ‘au’ is used. Another example is ‘au sang’ which means ‘with blood’ (where blood is used as a ‘liaison’)
• à la Française - ‘in the French style’. ‘Française’ is a feminine word, which is why the feminine form ‘à la’ is used. Another example is ‘à la Russe’ which means ‘in the Russian style’
• aux Fruits - ‘-with fruit. ‘Aux’ is used for both masculine and feminine plurals. Another example is ‘aux Fines Herbes’

The Italian equivalent forms of this preposition are ‘a, al, alla, allo’, and the Spanish are ‘a, al, a la’.

à, au, à la, aux