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Getting in and out: 'entrer dans', 'monter dans', 'descendre de'

In English you simply enter a room, board a train or leave the house: the place follows the verb directly. Sometimes you add a little word instead: get in the car, get off the bus. French does neither. Its everyday verbs of getting in and out need a real preposition before the place: entrer dans, monter dans, descendre de, sortir de.

This trips up English speakers in two ways. First, entrer la cuisine sounds as natural to them as enter the kitchen, but it is wrong in French. Second, English words like in, on, off and out do not map neatly onto French words, so learners guess. The good news is that the system is very regular once you see it.

Word list
sortirA1 to go out + de: sortir de la maison descendreA2 to get off + de: descendre du bus entrerA2 to enter + dans: entrer dans la cuisine monterA2 to get on + dans: monter dans le train / le bus / l'avion monterA2 to get in + dans: monter dans la voiture sortirA2 to get out + de: sortir de la voiture sortir deA2 to leave + de: sortir de la pièce
How it works

Think of these verbs as describing movement across a border: into a space or out of it. French marks that border with a preposition every time.

  • Going into a place or vehicle: verb + dans (entrer dans, monter dans).
  • Coming out of a place or vehicle: verb + de (sortir de, descendre de).

Remember that de merges with the article: de + le becomes du (du train) and de + les becomes des. Before a vowel you get de l' (de l'avion). The choice between the verbs depends on the kind of space. Buildings and rooms use entrer and sortir. For public transport, French pictures you climbing up and stepping down, so it uses monter and descendre. With cars, you can say either descendre de or sortir de.

The words

entrer means to go into a room, building or shop. English says enter the room, but French always needs dans.

Il entre dans le magasin.
(He goes into the shop.)
Vous pouvez entrer dans la cuisine.
(You can come into the kitchen.)

monter covers two English phrases: to get on or board a bus, train or plane, and to get in a car. Both use dans.

Je monte dans le bus devant la gare.
(I get on the bus outside the station.)
Montez dans la voiture !
(Get in the car!)

descendre is the opposite: to get off a bus, train or plane. It takes de.

Je descends du train à Lyon.
(I get off the train in Lyon.)

sortir is the verb for getting out of a car and for going out of a building or room. With the meaning to leave or exit a place, sortir de is the full pattern. Each time the place comes after de.

Elle sort de la voiture avec son sac.
(She gets out of the car with her bag.)
On sort de la maison à huit heures.
(We leave the house at eight.)
Il est sorti de la pièce sans rien dire.
(He left the room without saying anything.)
Watch out

If you want a verb that works like English leave, with no preposition, use quitter. It takes a direct object, so never add de to it.

Il a quitté la pièce très vite.
(He left the room very quickly.)

In the past, these movement verbs take être, and the past participle agrees with the subject: elle est montée, ils sont descendus.

Je suis monté dans le bus à midi.
(I got on the bus at noon.)

Be careful: monter, descendre and sortir can also take a direct object, but then the meaning changes. Monter les escaliers means to go up the stairs, descendre la valise means to bring the suitcase down, and sortir le chien means to take the dog out. In these uses the auxiliary is avoir.

J'ai monté les valises au deuxième étage.
(I carried the suitcases up to the second floor.)

The most typical mistake is simply dropping the preposition: entrer la maison or monter le train. If there is a place you go into or out of, check that dans or de is there.

Summary

When you go into or come out of a place or vehicle in French, the place never follows the verb directly. Going in takes dans (entrer dans, monter dans), and coming out takes de (sortir de, descendre de). Use monter and descendre for buses, trains and planes, and entrer and sortir for rooms and buildings. If you want a direct object like English leave, switch to quitter.