# FR: une poste / la poste



## Gijoe

Hi, 

I was wondering why you don't say une poste while the gare can be said with une. 

What is the logic behind?

Thanks.


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## atcheque

Bonjour,

Can you give a context, an example, please? 
I can say _Y a-t-il une Poste dans ce quartier ?_


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## Maître Capello

It's quite simple: _la poste_ (note the definite article) is first and foremost an administration/service, not an office. (By the way, in English, you say “post office.”) We often say _poste_ to refer to a particular post office by metonymy (especially when used with the definite article), but otherwise it is not a place, contrary to _gare_.


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## Gijoe

Thank you very much both of you. 

This material, however, is for teaching places, and the context from the beginning mentions of la - 

il y a un parc, derriere le parc, il y a la poste
devant la poste, il y a une gare


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## atcheque

Franchement, _la gare_ serait correct aussi ;]


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## janpol

Je vais chercher mon ami à la gare >> l'emploi de "la" suppose qu'il y en a une seule dans la ville. S'il y en a plusieurs, je nomme celle ou je me rends : je vais à la gare Saint Lazare / de Lyon/ du Nord etc... si je prends l'exemple de Paris.
Je vais à la poste. En général, il n'y en a qu'une sauf dans les grandes villes.


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## binhle410

Hello all, I have a question

does the use of une here make sense ?
Or is it some kind of idiomatic that we must use le,la,les in these cases ?

*(1) Elle va à une poste. 
*[…]

Merci bien d'avance


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## Michelvar

Hi, 

what is your original English sentences? Your sentences are correct, but I'm not sure they mean what you want to say...


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## binhle410

I am trying to differentiate between 2 things
(1) Elle va à la poste 
and
(2) Elle va à une poste

In the first one, does it mean that she is going to a specific post ? or does it mean that she is sending some packages at the post office
-> it is sure to use the post office's services

and does (2) means that she is simply going to a post and she may go there to meet a friend not to send any packages ? 
-> she may or may not use it ?


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## Maître Capello

In sentence #1, a specific post office it typically implied, usually the one where the person usually goes or the one closest to her location. You may however not conclude what she will do there; you only know that she is going there.

Sentence #2 suggests the person is going to the first post office she will find, but the phrase sounds a bit weird and I don't think any native would say it.


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## Chimel

Well, actually it's pretty much the same for many other names of places. I can say "Je vais à la boulangerie" even if there are many in my town (but I usually go to the same or at least I know which baker's shop I mean). So in both cases, we would say "elle va à la poste".

But there is indeed something particular with _poste_. While we would say "Pardon, où est-ce qu'il y a une boulangerie près d'ici?", it is not very natural (although quite correct) to ask: "Où est-ce qu'il y a une poste?" The most common way is: "un bureau de poste". Don't ask me why...


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## binhle410

Janpol, Chimel, you guys have 2 different opposite ideas, how do we rectify this ?


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## Oddmania

Hi,

I think Maître Capello's answer was pretty clear. The mail service of France is called _*La* Poste_. The article is on the logo and its website is _*la*poste.fr_*.*

*** If I need to mail something and go to the nearest post office (the post office in my town), then I'll say _Je vais à la Poste _(which is just like saying _I'm going to the Post Office_ in English). 

*** You could also say _Je vais *au *bureau de poste_ (_au = à *le*_) but it's not very common. It makes me think of an English-to-French translation. For instance, if a movie or a book took place in an English-speaking country (USA, Canada,...) then it would make sense to translate _Post Office _as _bureau de poste_  If the movie takes place in North America, translating _Post Office_ as _La Poste_ won't sound faithful to the original setting, because _La Poste_ doesn't exist in North America (it would be like translating _Peter _as _Pierre_. We don't do that anymore). Thus, _bureau de poste_ would be suitable. 

*** If I'm going to a further post office (a post office that is not my town of residence), then I still have the same two options: _Je dois aller à la Poste de Gardanne _(for instance) or _Je dois aller au bureau de poste de Gardanne_. 

*** If there are several post offices in that town, then it gets a little more complicated. I could use _la _or _une_, but not the same nouns: 

.......—  As I said before, the name of the service is _*La* Poste_. Thus, _une Poste _sounds very awkward. I think this is sloppy French. On the other hand, you can say _Je dois 
__..;;;.....aller à la Poste de _or _à Paris_, even if there are several offices. When you use _la_, you consider the whole mail service of the city of Paris. It amounts to  saying _I'm_ 
...;;;...._required to use *the* mail service of Paris_, no matter which post office you go to.

.......— Yet again, if there are *several *post offices in that town, then you can say _la Poste de Paris_ but not_ *le* bureau de poste de Paris. _While_ la Poste_ is general, a post 
...;;;....office/_bureau de poste_ is an individual location. Saying _le bureau de poste_ would imply there is only one post office in the city. On the other hand, you could say :

.................*a.* _Je dois aller à *un des* bureau*x* de poste de Paris_,
 .................*b.* _Je dois aller à *un *bureau de poste *à *Paris_,
 .................*c.* or _Je dois aller à *un *bureau de poste *de *Paris_.

I hope it helps!


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## Chimel

binhle410 said:


> Janpol, Chimel, you guys have 2 different opposite ideas, how do we rectify this ?


Janpol's view and mine are not opposite, but complementary, I think. I fully agree with him:


> Je vais à la poste. En général, il n'y en a qu'une sauf dans les grandes villes.



but as he didn't explain what to say _when _there are several post offices in the same town, I've just pointed out that "un bureau de poste" is better than "une poste" in that case.

Oddmania's explanation is still more complete. I would just write "je vais à la poste" instead of "la Poste" with capital P in these examples. But if you speak of the institution itself, than of course: "La Poste va engager/licencier 600 personnes".


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