How should I understand "à" in "ma porte à clef"?

Question

Le soir suivant, je voulus faire la même épreuve. Je fermai donc ma porte à clef pour être certain que personne ne pourrait pénétrer chez moi. Je m'endormis et je me réveillai comme chaque nuit. On avait bu toute l'eau que j'avais vue deux heures plus tôt.

In the second sentence of the excerpt above, what is the grammatical property of "à" there? My dictionary shows that it is a preposition. But there is no definite/indefinite article in front of "clef". Is "porte à clef" a phrase or something?

My question concerns that how should I understand "Je fermai donc ma porte à clef" precisely in English.

The phrase is fermer à clef and means "to lock" when the lock opens with a key. See http://french.stackexchange.com/q/19427/10519 for a much more detailed answer. — qoba, Nov 05 '16 at 19:35

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '16 at 19:39

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fermer à clef means to lock something. You can also use fermer à clé with exactly the same meaning, since clé and clef are synonymous. It's worth noting that even though these both literally mean "close by key", there does not have to be a key envolved in the locking process, for example you could use fermer à clé when referring to a toilet cubicle door, which doesn't use a key. (It may be useful if some natives confirm this, but I'm pretty sure this is the case)

Another verb for to lock would be verrouiller, but fermer à clé is probably more common in everyday language.

In answer to your other question, you would translate that phrase as

I will therefore lock my door.... (to be certain that nobody can get into my house)

answered Nov 05 '16 at 19:39

Harvey

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I'm a native and I wouldn't mind using "fermer à clef" for a toilet cubicle door... even though I would naturally use verrouiller in most cases where a key is not involved. – Nikana Reklawyks Nov 06 '16 at 01:21
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clé et clef ne sont pas des synonymes, mais deux orthographes possibles du même mot. – guillaume girod-vitouchkina Nov 12 '16 at 23:26
@guillaumegirod-vitouchkina ahh merci, alors est-ce que les deux mots ont la même prononciation aussi? – Harvey Nov 13 '16 at 09:46
@Harvey - également. Il y a seulement quelques mots dans ce cas: cuillère/cuiller, orang-outan/outang, paie, paye,tsar/tzar, yogourt, yoghourt – guillaume girod-vitouchkina Nov 18 '16 at 22:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 12 '16 at 23:31

à est associé à fermer, et non à porte. Cela signifie avec dans ce cas.

fermer à clef : avec une clef
fermer à double tour : avec / en faisant un double tour
fermer à fond : jusqu'au fond
fermer à mort (forme familière) : jusqu'à la mort (jusqu'au bout, au maximum)

How should I understand "à" in "ma porte à clef"?

2 Answers2