appartenir à
The English verb belong is translated into French as appartenir à.
The phrase is used to express that something is the property of someone or something.
Meaning: be the property of (verb)
Which one should you use?
While appartenir à is used for legal or formal ownership, the expression être à is a common colloquial way to express possession, such as in the phrase Ce livre est à moi.
How does it change in a sentence?
The verb appartenir is a third-group irregular verb. When using the phrase to indicate an owner, the verb must be followed by the preposition à.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly omit the preposition à when translating 'belongs to'. Instead of saying cela appartient moi, you should say cela appartient à moi.
Did you know?
- If a person feels they 'belong' in a place emotionally, they would not use appartenir, but rather say they feel à sa place, meaning 'in their place'.
- The preposition à in appartenir à is a linguistic merger of two different Latin prepositions, ad and ab, which had opposite directions of movement.
- While appartenir denotes ownership, the phrase faire partie de is used when someone 'belongs' in the sense of being a member of a group or a piece of a whole.
Examples in context
- Le livre appartient à la bibliothèque.The book belongs to the library.
- Elle fait partie d'une équipe de football.She belongs to a football team.
- Je me sens chez moi dans cette ville.I feel at home in this city.
- Nous sommes tous les deux très proches, elle fait vraiment partie de ma bande.We are both very close, she really belongs to my group of friends.
- Ce livre doit appartenir à la bibliothèque.This book must belong to the library.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “belong” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries appartenir, à, CC BY-SA 4.0.
