À la mode / manière / façon / des Alsaciens Ce qui distingue la mode, de la manière et de la façon

This article aims at describing French phrases à la mode / manière/ façon (de NP + Adj + relative), meaning “in an Adj way, like NP”. On the one hand, it will be verified if the noun’s meaning (mode, manière, façon) has any effect upon the choice of complement. It is shown that mode is essentially caracterised by time, space and human beings, which is not the case for manière and façon. On the other hand, it will be shown that these are not set prepositional phrases, but free structures.