Grammaire 1: aller à (going to places)

Pronunciation hints: je vais, tu vas, nous_zallons, vous_zallez, ils/elles vont

Going places

(a) When talking about going to a place, we usually use the preposition à (to). Just as we have seen before with the preposition de, à also contracts with the definite articles le and les: à + le = au restaurant; à + les = aux magasins. There are no contractions with the articles la and l’.

François va à l’université.             (François goes to the university.) 

Ava et Jean vont au musée.           (Ava and Jean are going to the museum.)

[Note: not à le musée]

Nous allons à la montagne Grouse.   (We are going to Grouse mountain.)

Vous n’allez jamais aux soirées.         (You never go to the parties.)

[Note: not à les soirées]

(b) The pronoun y can replace the destination, much like the word ‘there’ in English. You use it like a shortcut once the name of the place is established between the speakers:

On va au café. (We go to the museum.)

     ➔ On y va.       (We go there.)

Tu vas chez Marie ? (Are you going to Marie’s place?)

     ➔ Tu y vas ?         (Are you going there?)

Nous mangeons au café.    (We eat in the café.)

     ➔ Nous y mangeons.     (We eat there.)

As you can see, (1) y goes before the verb; and (2) it can replace phrases with à (au musée/café) and chez (chez Michel); it works with other verbs besides aller (like manger).

— Tu vas à la soirée chez Michel ce soir ? (Are you going to the party at Michel’s house tonight?)

— Oui, j’y vais. (Yes, I’m going [there])

(c) You will often hear commands like: Allons-y or On y va (Let’s go) or Vas-y or Allez-y (Go ahead).

— Tu veux aller au resto avec moi ? (Do you want to go to the restaurant with me?)

— Ouais ! On y va !                              (Yeah! Let’s go!)

(d) We have been using the verb aller when asking ‘how are you?’ (literally How is it going?) and responding to the question (I’m, it’s going well):

-Comment vas-tu, (Comment allez-vous)? -Je vais bien (ça va bien).

(5) In French, “chez” means “at the home of” or “at the place of.” It is used to indicate someone’s home, place, or sometimes their professional place. Here are a few examples:

Chez moi – at my home

Chez toi – at your home

Chez le dentiste – at the dentist’s (office)

Chez Marie – at Marie’s (place/home)

Going to do things

We can also use aller to express future actions. To do so, we use an infinitive construction (just as we have done with aimer + infinitive to express likes and dislikes). See the next section for examples.