French grammar · A1 · Lesson 13
Aller and the near future
Aller (“to go”) is irregular: je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont. The near future (futur proche) is aller + infinitive, just like English “going to”: on va danser, “we are going to dance”. À + le becomes au and à + les becomes aux.
Last updated:
How does it work?
Aller, “to go”, is one of the wildest irregular verbs in French: three of its forms do not even start with the same letter as the infinitive. It is also one of the most useful, so it is worth learning by heart today.
| aller | ||
|---|---|---|
| je | vais | I go, I am going |
| tu | vas | you go (one friend) |
| il / elle / on | va | he / she goes, we go |
| nous | allons | we go |
| vous | allez | you go (polite, or several) |
| ils / elles | vont | they go |
The near future. Here is the good news: French builds its everyday future exactly like English “going to”. Take aller, add an infinitive, done. On va danser, we are going to dance. Je vais rester, I am going to stay. There is even no “to” to remember: the infinitive follows aller directly. With this one trick you can talk about tomorrow without learning a single new tense.
To make it negative, wrap ne… pas around aller, not around the infinitive: Elles ne vont pas rester. They are not going to stay.
Au, à la, aux. In lesson 12, de + le fused into du. The little word à (to, at) does the same thing:
| à… | ||
|---|---|---|
| le salon | au salon | à + le → au |
| la salle à manger | à la salle à manger | no change |
| l’hôtel | à l’hôtel | no change |
| les passagers | aux passagers | à + les → aux |
It works for every meaning of à: “to” a place (ils vont au salon), “at” a place (ils sont au salon), and “to” a person (il parle aux passagers). You have already met one of these in lesson 6: aux États-Unis, “to” or “in the United States”, is à + les in disguise.
What does it look like in the story?
These sentences come from lesson 13, “Rozaine is free”, where the narrator is crossing the Atlantic on the liner Provence with Arsène Lupin hidden among the passengers.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Les passagers vont au salon. | The passengers go to the lounge. |
| Ce soir, on va jouer et danser. | Tonight we are going to play games and dance. |
| Je vais rester à côté de vous jusqu’à New York. | I am going to stay by your side all the way to New York. |
| Le commandant annonce une nouvelle aux passagers. | The captain announces some news to the passengers. |
Try it: In the first sentence, vont is a real trip from A to B. In the second and third, nobody is going anywhere. What comes straight after va and vais? And what do you think au and aux are made of?
« Ce soir-là on joua aux petits jeux. On dansa. »
That evening we played parlour games. We danced. Maurice Leblanc, L’Arrestation d’Arsène Lupin (1905).
How is it different from English?
The near future is a gift: je vais danser is “I’m going to dance”, word for word, minus the “to”. The catch is elsewhere: English never fuses “to the”, while French has to. À le and à les simply do not exist.
What mistake do English speakers make?
English “going to dance” tempts people into ✗ Je vais à danser. No à: ✓ Je vais danser. And never write ✗ à le salon or ✗ à les passagers: ✓ au salon, ✓ aux passagers.
Where can I practise it?
- Lesson 13: Rozaine is free: the story, the rule and interactive exercises, free.
- Review 3: lessons 11 to 15: this point again, in a summary table with the other lessons of the block.
- The A1 glossary: every word of the course, French to English.
← The partitive: du, de la, des and pas de · Big numbers. Faire and prendre →