Contractions with a and de

Use a before a city destination or location: vaig a Girona, soc a Girona. With casa in the home expression, no article is needed: torno a casa. With a definite masculine noun, contract a + el to al and a + els to als.

When a phrase contains several modifiers, decide the contraction at the immediate a/de + article boundary: al primer pis, dels nous veïns. The following adjective does not prevent contraction. If the article elides before that adjective instead, use a l'antic edifici or de l'últim dia.

Keep plural contractions even before vowel-initial words: als amics, dels estudiants. Plural els never elides. For Catalan place names, ordinary incorporated articles can contract, as in del Vendrell. The preserved capitalized article of certain titles follows its own written convention, so a blanket proper-name exemption would be misleading.