Course Information

Course: French IB v.3
Unit: 1. EN VILLE
Assignment: 3. Aller
ALLER

Where are the people in the images going? In this lesson, you're going to study how to conjugate the
irregular verb allerin the present tense so that you can say where you and others are going.

OBJECTIVES
 Conjugate aller in the present tense.
 Form and use the futur proche to talk about future events.

Aller
Isabelle est curieuse. Elle pose beaucoup de questions à sa famille d'accueil sur leurs projets pour la journée.
Écoutez le dialogue pour apprendre où chaque personne va .

Voici une liste des phrases qui vous aideront à mieux comprendre le dialogue :
Je vais... → I'm going.
des projets → plans
les actualités → current affairs
des timbres → stamps
un rhume → cold
des médicaments → medicine
Où vas-tu ? → Where are you going?

Click on the loudspeaker in the lower-left corner to hear the audio.

Aller au present
Bonne Idee:
To help you memorize this verb, write aller and its conjugation on a note card and study it for a few minutes
every day. Then, you'll be able to say where you and others are going. 

In the dialogue, the Beaufours tell Isabelle all about their plans for the day and say where they're going by
using aller. Aller, which means "to go," is one of the most common verbs used in French.

Although aller ends in -er, it's an irregular verb, so it's not conjugated like a regular -er verb.

However, there's still a pattern; except for nous and vous, the verb starts with a v when it's conjugated.

Now, take a moment to study the chart to see how to conjugate the verb. Click to hear the correct
pronunciation of each conjugation, and then practice saying each aloud.

aller → to go au présent → present tense

Je vais
singular Tu vas
Il/Elle/On va
Nous allons
plural Vous allez
Ils/Elles vont

Now it's your turn to practice conjugating aller. Complete the activity below to see how well you know it. 
Now that you're familiar with how to conjugate aller, read on to learn about what preposition is usually used
with this verb.

La préposition à
Le saviez-vous ?

This is a wonderful phrase and activity: 

Nous allons à l'église pour prier ce matin. → This morning, we are going to church to pray. 
Generally, the preposition à, which can be translated as "at," "to," or "in" is used with the verb aller when
talking about a place. Remember, the preposition à contracts with the definite articles le and les. There's no
contraction with la or l'.

à + la → à la: la bibliothèque

Aurelie va à la bibliothèque. → Aurélie is going to the library.

à + l'→ à l': l'épicerie

Madame Beaufour va à l'épicerie. → Mrs. Beaufour is going to the grocery store.

à + le → au: le kiosque

Monsieur Beaufour va au kiosque. → Mr. Beaufour is going to the kiosk.

à + les → aux: les Halles

Isabelle et Aurélie vont souvent aux Halles. → Isabelle and Aurelie often go to the covered market.
Entrainons-Nous!
Question #1FillInBlank
Complétez la phrase avec la bonne forme du verbe aller.
Nous allons à la piscine pour faire de la natation.
Question #2FillInBlank
Complétez la phrase avec la bonne forme du verbe aller.
Je vais souvent au musée parce que j'adore l'art.
Question #3TextMultipleChoice
Complétez la phrase avec la bonne forme du verbe aller. 
Vous allez au théâtre pour regarder une pièce.

LE FUTUR PROCHE
In the first section, you studied how to conjugate aller in the present tense. The present tense is used to talk
about actions that are taking place right now or that occur all the time. Knowing the present tense allows you
to say what you and other people are doing, where you're going, etc.

However, knowing the present tense will only get you so far. If your friends ask you what your plans are for
next week, next month, or next year, you won't be able to tell them because you only know the present
tense.

So, in this section, you're going to cover a new tense in French called the futur proche, which means the
"near future." The near future allows you to talk about events that are going to happen.

Take a moment to listen to the following comic to hear Isabelle and her friends talk about their plans this
weekend. They're using the futur proche tense. Try to figure out how to form the near-future tense by
looking at what the friends say.

Click below the image to hear the dialogue between Isabelle and her friends.

Let's take a moment and look more closely at some of the sentences from the comic strip. Pay attention to
the words in bold to see how the futur proche is formed.

Je vais étudier tout le week-end. → I am going to study all weekend.

Luc et moi allons jouer au tennis. → Luc and I are going to play tennis.
Je vais aller au musée d'art. → I am going to go to the art museum.

La formation
As you can see from the sentences above, one way to talk about the future is to use the present tense of the
verb allerand an infinitive. This structure is equivalent to the English phrase "going to" + verb.
aller → to go au présent → present tense
Je vais
singular Tu vas
Il/Elle va
Nous allons
plural Vous allez
Ils/Elles vont

Once you've conjugated aller, add an infinitive to say what you or others are going to do.. Notice that you can
use the present tense of aller and the infinitive aller in the same sentence.

Je vais aller au cinéma avec mes amis. → I am going to go to the movies with my friends.
Il va acheter des fruits à l'épicerie.  → He is going to buy fruit at the grocery store.
Nous allons visiter le musée d'histoire.  → We are going to visit the history museum.
Vous allez regarder le match de foot à la télé. → You are going to watch the soccer game on TV.

La place de la négation.
To say that you're not going to do something or that you're not going somewhere, you simply
use ne...pas. With the futur proche, ne...pas is placed before and after the conjugated verb, like this:
Subject Pronoun ne aller au présent pas infinitif
Je ne vais pas jouer au tennis.
Elle ne va pas chanter.
Vous n' allez pas danser.

Remember that the ne contracts before the vowel. Vous n'allez pas.

L'Interrogation

What if you want to ask your friends what their plans are for the weekend? Well, you use the same
interrogative structures. You can use intonation, which is where your voice rises at the end to indicate a
question, and you can use est-ce que or inversion. Study the chart below to see how to ask questions using
both est-ce que and inversion.

Est-ce que Inversion Translation

Est-ce que tu vas aller au cinéma ? Vas-tu aller au cinéma ? Are you going to the movie theatre?
Est-ce que vous allez étudier ? Allez-vous étudier ? Are you going to study?
Où est-ce que vous allez diner ? Où allez-vous diner ? Where are you going to eat dinner?

Notice that when you're asking a question with est-ce que, you simply attach this phrase to the beginning of a
sentence to turn the phrase into a question. If you have an interrogative word like pourquoi then you place
the interrogative word or words before est-ce que like this:

Pourquoi est-ce que tu vas aller au magasin ? → Why are you going to go to the store?
When you ask a question using inversion, you just reverse the conjugated verb and the subject pronoun, not
the infinitive. In the futur proche, the conjugated verb is always the present tense of aller.

Où allez-vous aller ? → Where are you going to go ?

Entrainons-Nous!
Cliquez ici pour voir et imprimer la liste de vocabulaire.
RÉVISONS!

Notez! Some of the problems in this lesson may require you to type French language letters that are not on
your keyboard. These characters can be typed by pressing down the left ALT key (next to the Space bar) and
typing in a number code.

Click on the link below to see a table of French characters and their number codes. You may want to print the
document to use throughout this course.

Key-by-Key Translator

In this lesson, you studied how to conjugate the verb aller and some of the common expressions that use it.
Now, you can talk about your plans and where you and others are going.

You also studied the futur proche, the "near future," which will allow you to talk about what you and others
are going to do. Remember, the futur proche is formed when the present tense of aller and an infinitive is
used.

Before moving to the next section, make sure you can conjugate aller and form the futur proche.
Don't forget to review the vocabulary in the last section of this lesson.

Question #4MultipleChoice
Olivia a un rhume et elle a besoin de médicaments. 
Elle vas à la pharmacie.
Elle va au supermarché.
Elle va à la pharmacie.
Elle vas au supermarché.
Question #5MultipleChoice
Choisissez la phrase qui décrit ce qui se passe. 

Tu vas aller au centre commercial.

Je vais allons au centre commercial.
Je vais aller au marché.
Tu vas allons au marché.
Question #6TextMultipleChoice
Complétez la phrase au futur proche. 
Je vais aller stade pour regarder un match de foot.
Question #7MultipleChoice
Choisissez la phrase qui décrit ce qui se passe. 
Vous aimez voir des films. 
Vous allons regarde un film au théâtre.
Vous allez regarde un film au théâtre.
Vous allez regarder un film au cinéma.
Vous allons regarder un film au cinéma
Question #8MultipleChoice
Choisissez la phrase qui décrit ce qui se passe. 
Hugo et Aimée ont un examen. 
Hugo et Aimée allons étudient à la librairie.
Hugo et Aimée allons étudient à la bibliothèque.
Hugo et Aimée allons étudier à la librairie.
Hugo et Aimée vont étudier à la bibliothèque.
VOCABULARY
aller to go

VOCABULARY
Je vais I am going

Tu vas You are going

Il/ Elle va He or she is going

Nous allons We are going

Vous allez You are going

Ils/Elles vont They are going