Module 2 of 10
Aller, and the places you go
An irregular verb and the contraction that catches everyone.
Aller is irregular and short: vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont. It is worth the memorisation twice over, because besides going places it builds the future in module six and it is the verb inside ça va, which you say forty times a day. French makes no distinction between I go and I am going — je vais covers both, and there is no present continuous to build.
The contraction is the part that takes practice. À plus le becomes au, à plus les becomes aux, and à la and à l' stay as they are. Je vais au cinéma, à la banque, à l'école, aux magasins. It is the same shape as the de contraction from the last course, and once you see them as one habit rather than two rules they stop being separate work. Cities take plain à — à Paris, à Delhi — and countries take a different word, which is a problem for later.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Je vaisI go, I am going
- Tu vas / Il vaYou go / he goes
- Nous allons / Vous allez / Ils vontWe go / you go / they go
- Je vais au marchéI am going to the market — à + le becomes au
- Je vais à la gareI am going to the station — à la does not contract
- Je vais aux toilettesI am going to the toilets — à + les becomes aux
- On va où ?Where are we going?
- Comment ça va ? — Ça va bienHow are you? — I am well. The same verb, doing something else
vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont. à + le = au, à + les = aux, and à la never changes.