68 4.12: Structure – Le verbe aller
In this section, you will learn about the verb aller.
Listen to the audio clips that follow on this page to hear the French pronunciation of vocabulary and examples presented.
On étudie !
What are we going to do? Where are we going to go? To talk about going places or going to do things, we use the irregular verb aller.
| Singulier | Pluriel |
|---|---|
| je vais | nous allons |
| tu vas | vous allez |
| il, elle, on va | ils, elles vont |
Going places
(a) When talking about going to a place, we usually use the preposition à (to). As we’ve seen above à contracts with the definite articles le and les: à + le = au restaurant; à + les = aux magasins.
François va à l’université. (François goes to the university.)
Ava et Jean vont au musée. (Ava and Jean are going to the museum.)
Nous allons à la fac. (We are going to the university.)
Vous n’allez jamais aux soirées. (You never go to the parties.)
(b) The pronoun y can replace the destination, much like the word there in English:
On va au musée. (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 dans le 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), dans (dans le café) and chez (chez moi); 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])
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!)
Going to do things
You use aller followed directly by an infinitive to express future actions. This is called the futur proche (near or immediate future).
— Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire ce soir ? (What are you going to do tonight?)
— Je vais dîner chez mes parents. (I am going to have dinner at my parents’ house.)
Here is a summary of the two principle uses of the verb aller:
| Aller faire quelque chose | Aller quelque part |
|---|---|
| aller + infinitif | aller + à + article défini + nom |
Watch this video to practice pronouncing aller.
Watch these videos to review the formation and use of the verb aller:
On pratique !
Activité
Complétez les phrase avec le verbe aller.
- Nous _________ au parc tous les jours.
- On ______ voir un film ce soir.
- Est-ce que vous ________ bien ?
- Quand est-ce que Jean et Antonio ________ arriver.
- J’aime _________ au centre commercial le week-end.
On approfondit !
Use the following resources to type accents and/or search for words:
- Accents: ç, à, é, è, â, ê, î, ô, û, ù, ë, ï, ü
- Dictionnaire français-anglais
