Wiktionary

à

See also: À, -à, and Appendix:Variations of "a"
à U+00E0, à
LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
Composition:a [U+0061] + ◌̀ [U+0300]
← ß
[U+00DF] 		Latin-1 Supplement á →
[U+00E1]

Danish

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Alternative forms

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Preposition

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à

  1. of, of...each, each containing
  2. at
  3. to, or

Dutch

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Etymology

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From French à.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

Preposition

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à

  1. indicates an approximate number
    Kook 2 à 3 aardappelen per persoon. ― Boil 2 or/to 3 potatoes per person.
  2. indicates the price etc. each
    10 blikjes à 0,06 € is 0,60 € in totaal. ― 10 cans at €0.06 each is €0.60 in total.

Descendants

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  • → Indonesian: à

Finnish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French à.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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à (not comparable)

  1. a, per, each
    Synonyms: see kohti

French

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Pronunciation

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Notes

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  • In Canada, à and a are not homophones, à [a], a [ɑː].

Etymology 1

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Letter

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à (lower case, upper case À)

  1. A with grave accent, a letter used in French mostly to distinguish some homographs and in transliteration.
Usage notes
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  • Use of accents on capital letters is variable. European usage is sometimes to omit accents, though the French Academy considers it incorrect.[1] This is partly due to the keyboard layout used in France. Quebec usage is to put accents on capitals.

Etymology 2

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Inherited from Old French a, a merge of Latin ad and ab.

Preposition

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à

  1. to (destination)
    aller au bout ― go to the end / go all the way
    Je vais à Paris. ― I am going to Paris.
  2. to (until)
    Le spectacle sera de 18h à 21h. ― The show will be from 6 pm to 9 pm.
  3. on the, to (some directions)
    Tournez à gauche ! ― Turn [to the] left!
    Ne tournez pas encore à droite ! ― Don't turn [to the] right yet!
    Le vent vire au nord. ― The wind turns north.
    L’école est à gauche. ― The school is on the left.
  4. at (said of a particular time)
    à dix heures et quart ― at quarter past ten
    Je pars à cinq heures précises. ― I am leaving at exactly five o'clock.
  5. at, in, on (said of a particular place)
    à la maison ― at home
    à l’hôtel ― at the hotel
    au comptoir du bar ― at the bar
    au bois ― in the woods
    J’habite à un demi-kilomètre d’ici. ― I live half a kilometer from here.
    La maison qui a été détruite hier soir ne se trouvait qu’à trois kilomètres de chez nous.
    The house that was destroyed last night was only three kilometers from our place.
  6. Found in various interjections used as warnings or exhortations
    au voleur ! ― stop thief!
    à l’assassin ! ― murderer!
    au meurtre ! ― murder! murderer!
    à moi ! ― help!
    à l’aide ! ― help!
    au secours ! ― help!
    au feu ! ― fire!
    aux armes ! ― to arms!
    à l’attaque ! ― attack! forward! charge! up and at 'em!
    à l’abordage ! ― on board!
    au boulot ! ― get to work! let's get to work!
    au travail ! ― get to work! let's get to work!
  7. from (origin)
    Nous prenons de l’eau au puits. ― We get water from the well.
    Je l’ai eu à la bibliothèque. ― I got it from the library.
    Voilà la femme à laquelle j’ai acheté mon chien ― There's the woman I bought my dog from.
  8. of (belonging to)
    Synonym: (usually in different grammatical contexts) de
    C’est un ami à moi. ― This is a friend of mine.
    Cette voiture est à John. ― This is John's car.
    le chien à Marie ― Mary's dog [nonstandard: one normally would use de here]
  9. till, until (used in farewells)
    à plus tard ― see you later
    à bientôt ― see you soon
    Salut, donc. À demain. ― Bye, then. 'Til tomorrow / see you tomorrow.
  10. (cooking) cooked in or with
  11. Used to make compound nouns to state what something is used for
    moulin à poivre ― pepper mill
    sac à dos ― backpack
    boite à musique ― music box
  12. (before an infinitive) to (used to express something not completed)
    l’équipe à battre ― the team to beat
    Il n’y a jamais grand-chose à faire par ici. ― There's never much to do around here.
    Là où tu ne vois pas grand-chose, je ne trouve qu’une grande abondance de choses qui restent à faire. ― Where you see nothing great, I only see a great abundance of things that need doing.
    Il reste deux tâches à finir. ― There are two things left to finish.
    Il y a de la bière à boire. ― There's some beer to drink.
  13. Used to describe a part of something, often translated into English as a compound adjective
    un animal à quatre pattes ― a four-legged animal
    une femme au visage pâle ― a pale-faced woman
    un homme à longue barbe ― a long-bearded man — a man with a long beard
    une chemise à manches courtes ― a short-sleeved shirt
    une maison aux murs de brique ― a brick-walled house / a house with brick walls
  14. by
    peu à peu ― bit by bit
    petit à petit ― little by little
    minute à minute ― minute by minute
    jour à jour ― day by day
    un à un ― one by one
  15. or, to (used to express an approximate number)
    six à sept personnes ― six or seven people
    de vingt à trente ans ― from twenty to thirty years
    tous les cinq à six ans ― every five or six years
  16. Used to indicate the recipient of certain phrasal verb.
    mettre le feu à ― to set fire to
    clouer le bec à ― to shut (someone) up
    donner la chasse à ― to give chase to
    • 1836, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XL, in Louis Viardot, transl., L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume I, Paris: J[acques]-J[ulien] Dubochet et Cie, éditeurs, […], →OCLC:
      Bien que la faim et le dénûment nous tourmentassent quelquefois, et même à peu près toujours, rien ne nous causait autant de tourment que d’être témoins des cruautés inouïes que mon maître exerçait sur les chrétiens. Chaque jour il en faisait pendre quelqu’un; on empalait celui-là, on coupait les oreilles à celui-ci […] .
      Even though hunger and destitution tormented us sometimes, and even almost always, nothing caused us as much torment as being witnesses to the unheard-of cruelties that my master exercised on the Christians. Every day, he made someone hang; they impaled that one, they cut the ears off of this one […] .
  17. with
    • (Can we date this quote?), Jacques Bouveresse, "Et Satan conduit le bal..." Kraus, Hitler & le nazisme, which is an introduction to the book La Troisième nuit de Walpurgis, by Karl Kraus, translated by Pierre Deshusses:
      On peut remarquer, à ce propos, que ce n’est pas non plus dans des livre à prétention plus ou moins scientifique que Kraus avait l’habitude de chercher les instruments dont il avait besoin pour la déscription et l’expliquation.
      It may also be noticed, on this matter, that it is also not on books with more or less scientific pretentions that Kraus used to search for the instruments which he needed for description and explanation.
Usage notes
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  • Expresses a report/ratio of place (to), time (at), means, manner, price. It can indicate possession (of or 's), particularly when used with a disjunctive personal pronoun, e.g. à moi, à eux, à elle.
  • Introduces several types of grammatical complement: indirect object, attribution, name, adjective.
    • In French, a good number of intransitive verbs use à to mark an indirect object, e.g. reussir à (“to succeed at”). Sometimes, their English equivalents are transitive verbs taking direct objects, e.g. jouer à (un jeu) (“to play (a game)”), in which case, translations generally do not require any counterpartial element be rendered for à, though some ways of rendering certain verbs will allow for it.
  • When à is followed by a definite article, the two combine to give the following combined forms:
    à + article Combined form
    à + le au
    à + la unchanged
    (à la)
    à + l’ unchanged
    (à l')
    à + les aux
    • However, à la and à l' are almost entirely not used if the location referred to is a country, subnational division, or continent, in which case, en is used instead. (The same does not hold, however, for au and aux.) Compare en France and aux États-Unis. The most notable exception is à la Barbade.
  • Logically following the previously described rule, à combines with the relative pronouns, which themselves contain an element of the definite article, producing these forms:
    à + article Combined form
    à + lequel auquel
    à + laquelle à laquelle
    à + lesquels auxquels
    à + lesquelles auxquelles
Derived terms
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compounds and contractions
locutions and syntagma
Descendants
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  • → Danish: à
  • → Dutch: à
  • → German: à
  • → Hungarian: à
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: à, a
  • → Swedish: à

References

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  1. ^ “Questions de langue”, in French Academy‎[1], 1990

Further reading

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Galician

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [aː]
  • Hyphenation: à

Contraction

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à f (masculine ao, masculine plural aos, feminine plural às)

  1. reintegrationist spelling of á

Further reading

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  • “à” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

German

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French à.

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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à [with nominative or dative or accusative]

  1. (business, colloquial) at (a specified price or rate of exchange per item)
    Vier Briefmarken à 75 Cent, das macht drei Euro, bitte!
    Four stamps at 75 cents each, that's three euros, please!

Usage notes

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  • Generally not followed by articles or adjectives, but if necessary it may be construed with nominative, dative, or accusative: à ein or einem or einen Euro.

Synonyms

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Hungarian

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Etymology

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From French à.

Pronunciation

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Letter

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à (lower case, upper case À)

  1. (commerce, dated) at, @ (at the given rate for each item)
    Synonyms: darabja, egyenként
  2. (formal, often in the phrase à la) a la, in the style of, after the manner of
    Synonyms: módján, modorában, stílusában

Declension

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Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative à à-k
accusative à-t à-kat
dative à-nak à-knak
instrumental à-val à-kkal
causal-final à-ért à-kért
translative à-vá à-kká
terminative à-ig à-kig
essive-formal à-ként à-kként
essive-modal — —
inessive à-ban à-kban
superessive à-n à-kon
adessive à-nál à-knál
illative à-ba à-kba
sublative à-ra à-kra
allative à-hoz à-khoz
elative à-ból à-kból
delative à-ról à-król
ablative à-tól à-któl
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		à-é à-ké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		à-éi à-kéi
Possessive forms of à
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. à-m à-im
2nd person sing. à-d à-id
3rd person sing. à-ja à-i
1st person plural à-nk à-ink
2nd person plural à-tok à-itok
3rd person plural à-juk à-ik

Derived terms

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See also

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Further reading

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  • à in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
  • à in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).
  • à in Pusztai, Ferenc (ed.). Magyar értelmező kéziszótár (“A Concise Explanatory Dictionary of Hungarian”). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2003. 2nd, expanded and revised edition →ISBN. Online searchable version (under development)

Indonesian

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from Dutch à, from French à.

Preposition

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à

  1. (rare) indicates an approximate number
    Synonyms: kira-kira, sekitar, lebih kurang
    Lama perjalanan yang ditempuh 20 à 30 menit. ― The journey takes around 20 to 30 minutes.
  2. (rare) indicates the price of a thing etc. per each
    Synonym: masing-masing
    Dia membeli 5 sisir pisang à Rp 5.000. ― He bought five fingers of bananas for Rp. 5,000 each.

Further reading

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Italian

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Letter

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à (upper case À)

  1. The letter ⟨a⟩ in a stressed final syllable.

Verb

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à

  1. Obsolete spelling of ha., third-person singular present indicative of avere

Ladin

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Verb

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à

  1. third-person singular present indicative of avei (“has”)
  2. third-person plural present indicative of avei (“have”)

Ligurian

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Verb

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à

  1. third-person singular present indicative of avéi (“has”)

Mandarin

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Alternative forms

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Romanization

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à (a4, Zhuyin ㄚˋ)

  1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 啊
  2. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 阿
  3. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 𫮄
  4. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 𮥀

Matal

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Pronoun

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à

  1. he, she

Middle French

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Preposition

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à

  1. (16th century onwards) Alternative form of a: at; to
    • 1537, Cicero (original author), Epistres familiaires traduictz de latin en francois et nouvellement imprimez link
      on les vend à Paris
      They are being sold in Paris

Ngam

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Cognate to Sar à.

Pronunciation

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Particle

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à

  1. initial interrogative particle on a question

References

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Keegan, John (2014). The Eastern Sara Languages. Ceunca, Spain: Morkeg Books. p. 223.

  • Mudiwa, Olukayode (2001). An Analysis of Proto-Sara. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Addis Ababa Books. p. 156.

Norman

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Etymology

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From Latin ad.

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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à

  1. to, at

Noun

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à m (plural às)

  1. at sign
    Synonyms: colînmachon, siez

References

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  • Spence, N.C.W. (1960). Glossary of Jersey-French. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 39.

Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nb

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French à (“to, on, in”), from Middle French à, from Old French a (“to, towards, belonging to”), from Latin ad (“to, towards, up to, at”), from Proto-Italic *ad (“toward, to, on, up to, for”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd (“to, at”).

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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à

  1. to, up to
    • 1907, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons fortællinger, page 204:
      på hver lystfarende nordmand kommer ti à tyve fremmede
      on every pleasure-seeking Norwegian comes ten to twenty strangers
    fem à seks kroner
    five to six kroner
  2. at ... each
    • 1998, Geir Pollen, Hutchinsons eftf., page 79:
      to hundre og femti nummererte [bok]eksemplarer à tusen kroner
      two hundred and fifty numbered [book] copies for a thousand kroner
    tre kilo à seksti kroner
    three kilos at sixty kroner each
  3. in, a
    • 1872-1883, Henrik Ibsen, Samlede verker XVII, page 92:
      [75 thaler] i sedler à 25 thaler
      [75 thaler] in 25 thaler banknotes
    • 2001, Jan Christopher Næss, Jotapata:
      tolv perioder à ca. fire uker
      twelve periods of approx. four weeks
    tre ganger à uka
    thrice a week
    Synonym: i
  4. (Used in French expressions, before a consonant) up to, in
    à jour, à la, à la carte, à la grecque, à la mode, vis-à-vis

Derived terms

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References

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  • “à” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
  • “à” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Portuguese

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Contraction

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à f sg

  2. Contraction of a a (“to the”): feminine singular of ao
    Vou à praia.
    I’m going to the beach.
Quotations
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For quotations using this term, see Citations:ao.

Preposition

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à

  2. Misspelling of a.
  3. forms adverbs meaning "in a manner related or resembling"
  5. Clipping of à moda de.
  6. accented preposition, the preposition a is accented when it comes before feminine words in prepositional, adverbial and conjunctive phrases; in
    Ele escreveu à caneta.
    He wrote in pen.
Usage notes
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  • The grave accent is used to differentiate the preposition of a simple article. In "He wrote in pen", the respective particle without the diacritic will make the sentence have another meaning: "He wrote the pen."

Etymology 2

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From homophone há.

Verb

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à

  1. Misspelling of há.

Rawang

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Suffix

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à (upper case À)

  1. verbal suffix for marking past tense on transitive verbs.
    Wedø wà yàngà.
    They did it like that.
    Àngbøø̀ng lòng vnáng bǿngà.
    I forgot his name.

Romagnol

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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à

  1. third-person singular/plural present indicative of avér (“to have”)

Romani

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Letter

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à (lower case, upper case À)

  1. (International Standard) The letter a with the grave accent.

See also

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Scottish Gaelic

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Etymology

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From Old Irish a. Cognates include Irish as and Manx ass.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /a/ (as if spelled a)
  • Hyphenation: à

Preposition

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à (+ dative, no mutation, before the definite article às)

  1. from, out of

Inflection

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Personal inflection of à
Person: simple emphatic
singular first asam asamsa
second asad asadsa
third m às às-san
f aiste aistese
plural first asainn asainne
second asaibh asaibhse
third asta astasan

Synonyms

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Further reading

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  • Edward Dwelly (1911) “à”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎[2], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “7 a”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Slovene

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Etymology 1

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Letter a with grave (◌̀) to signify short stressed vowel.

Pronunciation

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  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /a/
  • (letter name, non-tonal transcription): IPA(key): /kràːtki àː/, /kràːtki áː/ kratki a
  • Rhymes: -aː

Letter

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à (lower case, upper case À)

  1. Additional letter, used in some words to denote the short stress on a.

Symbol

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à

  1. (non-tonal SNPT) Phonetic transcription of sound [a].

Etymology 2

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Letter a with acute (◌̀) to signify long stressed vowel.

Pronunciation

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  • (Natisone Valley dialect, phoneme): IPA(key): /a/

Letter

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à (lower case, usually not in upper case)

  1. (Natisone Valley dialect) Additional letter, used in some words to denote the long stress on a.

Etymology 3

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From French à, from latin Latin ad 'to'.

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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à

  1. for, per (the price, mass etc.) [with accusative]
    Synonyms: po, za
    • 1886, Krain Landtag, Bericht über die Verhandlungen des Krainischen Landtages zu Laibach: nach den stenographischen Aufzeichnungen‎[3], page 219:
      Meso à 105 gramov.
      Meat per 105 grams.

See also

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Further reading

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“à”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2024

Spanish

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Preposition

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à

  1. Obsolete spelling of a.

Swedish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French à.

Pronunciation

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Preposition

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à

  1. ... to ...
    2 à 3 kg
    2 to 3 kilograms
    • 1850 August 13, “Landsorts-tidningar, Wisby [Non-capital newspapers, Visby]”, in Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, page 2:
      Sistlidne Fredag gaf den sydliga vinden, som då började blåsa med laber kultie signalen till skådespelets början; dagen derpå defilerade i prydlig ordning en svärm af seglare omkring 40 à 50 tre- och två-mastare, många i full skrud, med läsegel och skyskrap!
      Last Friday, the southern wind, which began to blow gently, gave the signal for the start of the spectacle; the next day, a swarm of sailboats, around 40 to 50 three- and two-masters, paraded in orderly fashion, many in full regalia, with studding sails and skyscrapers!
    • 1963, Margit Abenius, Memoarer från det inre‎[4], page 136:
      Jag har hela mitt liv, dvs. en 25 à 30 år fantiserat om en ny form, någonting som inte vore roman och inte essä, […]
      I have my whole life, ie. a 25 to 30 year fantasized about a new form, something that would not be a novel and not an essay, […]
    Synonyms: –, till
  2. @, at, each
    2 st à 1 kr
    2 pieces at 1 krona each

References

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Tày

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Particle

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à

  1. Question particle.
    Hết đảy mí à? ― Can you do it?
    Pây liê̱u mí à? ― Wanna go play?

Etymology 2

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Compare a.

Noun

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à (妸)

  1. blood paternal aunt (younger than one's father)
    me̱ à ― (polite) paternal aunt

Etymology 3

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Particle

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à

  1. yeah
    À chư̱ dá.
    Yeah, that's right.

Etymology 4

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Particle

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à (呵)

  1. Sound made during singing.

References

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  • Hoàng Văn Ma, Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Chí (2006) Từ điển Tày-Nùng-Việt [Tay-Nung-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Từ điển Bách khoa Hà Nội
  • Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎[5][6] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
  • Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003) Hoàng Triều Ân, editor, Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [A Dictionary of (chữ) Nôm Tày]‎[7] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội

Tlingit

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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à (upper case À)

  1. (Canada) A letter of the Tlingit alphabet, written in the Latin script.
    Synonym: aa

See also

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Vietnamese

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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à (lower case, upper case À)

  1. The letter a with the grave accent.

See also

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Interjection

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à

  1. oh; I see

Particle

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à

  1. Question particle.
    Thế à?
    Really?
    Cháu mới về à?
    So you've come back.
    Nhóm mày có bốn người thôi à?
    There's only four members in your group, isn't there?

Usage notes

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  • In contrast to không which is used to make a yes-no question, à is used to seek confirmation, roughly equivalent to Japanese ね (ne) or the English use of tag questions. Compare to nhỉ, which is similar to Japanese よ (yo) in that it is used to make a light assertion or remark. However, à denotes a speaker's stronger belief that the hearer will agree with him or her than the expression phải không.
  • The negative reply to this type of question can start with không phải only to questions with a nominal predicate. Otherwise, the negative reply starts with không (or its variants, such as hông) or some other negators such as đâu.
  • Not to be confused with ạ (politeness particle).

Welsh

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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à (upper case À)

  1. The letter A, marked for its short pronunciation in monosyllabic words.
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