Talking About Fruits and Flavours in French

In this lesson, we learn how to describe dishes in French using au, à la, and aux.

Sentence Builder: Talking About Fruits in Dishes

Je prépare… (I am making…)

French	English
une tarte aux pommes	an apple pie
une tarte aux poires	a pear pie
une tarte au citron	a lemon pie
une tarte à la rhubarbe	a rhubarb pie

Je mange… (I am eating…)

French	English
une glace au citron	lemon ice cream
une glace à la fraise	strawberry ice cream
une glace à l’ananas	pineapple ice cream

Why Do These Sentences Use au, à la, à l’, aux?

In French, when describing the flavour or ingredient of a dish, you use the preposition à (meaning “at” or “with”) combined with a definite article (le, la, les) to form a compound structure.

How It Works

Structure	Used With	Example	Meaning
au = à + le	masculine singular nouns	au citron	with lemon
à la	feminine singular nouns	à la fraise	with strawberry
à l’	nouns starting with a vowel or silent ‘h’	à l’ananas	with pineapple
aux = à + les	plural nouns	aux pommes	with apples

Tip:

• à le → contracts to au
• à les → contracts to aux
• à la and à l’ stay the same

This structure is common when describing flavours, ingredients, or toppings—especially in dishes like pies, ice cream, or sauces.

Spotlight: La pêche – A Homonym

French has many homonyms—words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. One useful example is:

• la pêche = peach (fruit)
• la pêche = fishing (activity)

Context is key:
→ Je mange une tarte à la pêche = I’m eating a peach pie
→ Je fais de la pêche = I’m going fishing

Exercise: Asking for Ice Cream

In this exercise, we will take a visit to the ice cream parlour, or le bar laitier to ask for a scoop or scoops (une boule) of various ice creams.

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