Difference between a and à

Word a and à are grammar homophones ie they do not have the same function in the sentence.

- a comes from verb avoir conjugated to the indicative present : il a.
- à is a preposition.

The best way to do their distinction is to change the sentence to another tense such as imperfect. At imperfect, a becomes avait meanwhile à does not change.

We always write à in front of an infinitive and a in front of a past participle. To recognise the infinitive from a past participle, you can take a third group verb such as prendre, vendre, dormir... In addition you get the gender: pris, prise or prendre.

- il a dit de ne pas s'en faire. (present)
- il avait dit de ne pas s'en faire. (imperfect)

- il ne pense qu'à manger. (Replace by another veb)
- il ne pense qu'à dormir.

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