Aller ('to go') is another essential irregular verb that must be memorized as a full set of forms, since it doesn't follow any regular pattern: je vais, tu vas, il/elle/on va, nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont. Notice how different the stem looks across forms (vais/va/vont/allons) — this kind of stem-shifting irregularity is common in French's most frequently used verbs, precisely because frequent verbs tend to resist the regularizing pressure that shapes less common ones.
To say where you're going, aller is followed by the preposition 'à' (to/at) plus the destination, but 'à' is required to contract with the definite articles le and les, exactly the way 'de' contracts elsewhere. The rules: à + le = au (je vais au marché — I'm going to the market), à + les = aux (je vais aux magasins — I'm going to the shops), while à + la stays as two separate words, à la (je vais à la banque — I'm going to the bank), and à + l' also stays separate, à l' (je vais à l'école — I'm going to school). So only the masculine singular (au) and the plural (aux) contract; the feminine singular (à la) and vowel-initial nouns (à l') do not.
Aller has a second, equally important use with no direct one-word equivalent in English: aller + infinitive expresses the near future ('going to' do something), just like English 'going to'. Je vais manger means 'I am going to eat' — this futur proche construction is extremely common in spoken French, often even more common than the true future tense, so mastering aller pays off twice: once for talking about physical destinations and once for talking about upcoming actions.
Exemples
Je vais au cinéma ce soir.
I'm going to the movies tonight.
'À + le' contracts to 'au'.
Tu vas à la piscine avec nous ?
Are you going to the pool with us?
'À la' does not contract — feminine singular stays two words.
Il va à l'hôpital pour rendre visite à son ami.
He is going to the hospital to visit his friend.
'À l'' before the vowel sound of 'hôpital'.
Nous allons aux toilettes avant de partir.
We're going to the restroom before we leave.
'À + les' contracts to 'aux'.
Vous allez au marché le samedi ?
Do you go to the market on Saturdays?
Elles vont à la bibliothèque après les cours.
They are going to the library after class.
On va au parc cet après-midi.
We're going to the park this afternoon.
Je vais manger dans ce restaurant demain.
I'm going to eat at this restaurant tomorrow.
Futur proche: aller (conjugated) + infinitive expresses near future, not a physical destination.
Ils vont prendre le bus dans dix minutes.
They're going to take the bus in ten minutes.
Another futur proche example.
Tu vas au bureau de poste avant midi ?
Are you going to the post office before noon?
Erreurs fréquentes
- Saying 'à le' instead of contracting to 'au' (writing 'je vais à le marché' instead of the correct 'je vais au marché').
- Contracting 'à la' or 'à l'' the way 'à le' contracts, when in fact only masculine singular (au) and plural (aux) contract — feminine singular and vowel-initial nouns keep 'à la'/'à l'' as two words.
- Conjugating aller as if it were regular, guessing forms like 'je alle' or 'nous vayons' instead of memorizing the irregular stems (vais/va/vont/allons/allez).
- Confusing the futur proche (aller + infinitive, meaning 'going to do something') with the destination use of aller + à + place, and inserting an unnecessary 'à' before the infinitive verb.
Pourquoi ça trompe les anglophones
- English 'to' never contracts with 'the' the way French 'à' obligatorily fuses with 'le' and 'les' into single words (au, aux), so remembering this mandatory fusion is a genuinely new mechanical step.
- Aller's wildly different-looking stems across persons (vais, va, vont, allons, allez) don't resemble each other the way English 'go/goes/going' visibly share a root, making the irregularity harder to intuit or guess.
- English 'going to' as a near-future marker and 'going to (a place)' both use the same verb 'go' fairly transparently, but French learners still need to consciously separate the two aller constructions since one takes 'à + place' and the other takes a bare infinitive with no preposition.