Contracted Articles (Articles Contractés)

The definite articles in French are Le, La, L' and Les which means "The" in English.

Le is for masculine singular
La is for feminine singular
L' is for vowels
Les is for plural

The definite articles and prepositions À (to/at/in) contract to form the contracted articles.

Examples:

She goes to Paris.
Elle va à Paris.

She is in Nice.
Elle est à Nice.

The preposition À and the definite articles contract in the following manner to form contracted articles. All these contracted articles can be translated as "to the". "at the" or "in the".

À + le -- becomes Au

À + la -- becomes À la

À + l' -- becomes À l'

À + les -- becomes Aux

Examples:

1) She goes to the market
Elle va (à + le) au marché.

Note: the definite article "le" is used on the above example because "marché"(market) is masculine gender and singular.

2) He goes to the station.
Il va (à + la)à la gare.

Note: the definite article "la" is used on the above example because "gare"(station) is feminine gender and singular.

3) We are at the airport.
Nous sommes (à + l') à l'aéroport.

Note: the definite article "l'" is used on the above example because the word aéroport (airport) starts with a vowel.

4) They go to the schools.
Il vont ( à + les) aux écoles.

Note: the definite article "les" is used on the above example because "écoles"(schools) is plural.