Contractions: al and del

Voy al cine.I'm going to the movies — literally "to the" cinema.

The prepositions a ("to, at") and de ("of, from") never stay separate right before the masculine singular article el — they merge into one word: al and del.

Quick shortcut: a + el → al. de + el → del. Always — this isn't optional.

al and del

• Voy al parque. (I'm going to the park.) — not a el parque
• Vengo del trabajo. (I'm coming from work.) — not de el trabajo

This is a genuine grammatical rule, not just a spelling habit — leaving a el or de el uncontracted is a real error, the way skipping a required verb ending would be. It only affects definite articles (el, la, los, las); the indefinite article un never contracts this way (al lado de un parque, not a problem — un isn't el).

Forms that don't contract

Before la, los, or las. These simply don't contain el in the first place, so there's no al/del to form — only el itself contracts:

• Voy a la playa. (I'm going to the beach.) — not ala playa
• Vengo de los Estados Unidos. (I'm coming from the United States.) — not del los Estados Unidos

Before él, the pronoun "him". el (no accent) is the article; él (with an accent) is a separate word meaning "he"/"him" — and it never contracts, since the contraction rule is specifically about the article:

• Se lo di a él, no a ella. (I gave it to him, not to her.) — not al
• Este regalo es de él. (This gift is his — literally "of him".) — not del

Before a capitalized El that's part of a proper noun. Some place names include El as a fixed part of the name itself, not as the ordinary article — and a name doesn't get edited by a grammar rule:

• Vuelo a El Cairo. (I'm flying to Cairo.) — not al Cairo
• Viene de El Salvador. (He's from El Salvador.) — not del Salvador

Common mistakes

• ❌ Voy a el cine. → ✅ Voy al cine. (a + el always contracts)
• ❌ Vengo de el trabajo. → ✅ Vengo del trabajo. (de + el always contracts)
• ❌ Se lo di al, no a ella. → ✅ Se lo di a él, no a ella. (él the pronoun never contracts)
• ❌ Vuelo al Cairo. → ✅ Vuelo a El Cairo. (El here is part of the name, not the article)
• ❌ Vengo del la escuela. → ✅ Vengo de la escuela. (only el contracts, not la)

Quick check

Fill in the blank with al, del, or the uncontracted form.

1. Voy ___ supermercado. (to the supermarket)
2. Vengo ___ casa de mi abuela. (from my grandmother's house — la casa)
3. Este libro es ___. (this book is his)
4. Vamos ___ museo. (to the museum)
5. Llegamos ___ El Salvador. (to El Salvador)

Key takeaways

• a + el → al; de + el → del — always, not optionally.
• Only el contracts. la, los, and las stay separate: a la, a los, a las, de la, de los, de las.
• él (the pronoun "he"/"him", with an accent) never contracts — only the article el does.
• A capitalized El that's part of a proper noun (El Cairo, El Salvador) doesn't contract either.