French grammar · Beginner
Aller in French: To Go, To Be Well, and To Be About To
Aller means to go, but French also uses it for how you are (je vais bien), for whether something suits you (cette veste te va bien), and for the near future (je vais partir). Its conjugation is one of the most irregular in the language, drawing forms from three different Latin verbs: vais, irai, and allons.
Comment vas-tu ? — Je vais bien, merci.
How are you? — I'm well, thanks.
What it is
Aller is a movement verb that has been recruited for several other jobs. Physical movement is only its first meaning; French also uses it to ask after someone's health, to say whether a garment or an arrangement works, and, followed by an infinitive, to place an action just ahead in time.
Je vais au marché, ça va bien, et je vais rentrer tôt. — I'm going to the market, I'm doing well, and I'm going to come home early.
How to spot it
There is no single stem. Vais and va come from one root, irai from another, allons from a third, and the subjunctive aille from a fourth.
- Je vais à Paris demain. — I'm going to Paris tomorrow.
- Nous allons au cinéma. — We're going to the cinema.
- Ils iront en Espagne cet été. — They'll go to Spain this summer.
- Il faut que j'aille travailler. — I have to go to work.
Ils vont is one of only four French verbs whose third-person plural ends in -ont: ils sont, ils ont, ils font, ils vont.
Aller Quick Reference
Aller and the preposition that follows it
| Destination | Preposition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a town | à | aller à Lyon — to go to Lyon |
| a masculine place | au | aller au bureau — to go to the office |
| a feminine place | à la | aller à la plage — to go to the beach |
| a plural place | aux | aller aux toilettes — to go to the toilet |
| a feminine country | en | aller en Italie — to go to Italy |
| a masculine country | au | aller au Japon — to go to Japan |
| a plural country | aux | aller aux Pays-Bas — to go to the Netherlands |
| a person's place | chez | aller chez le dentiste — to go to the dentist |
Common Aller Examples in French
The four jobs aller does, one category each:
Going Somewhere
- Où vas-tu ?
- Where are you going?
- Elle va à la gare à pied.
- She's walking to the station.
- Nous sommes allés en Grèce l'an dernier.
- We went to Greece last year.
- Va chercher ton frère.
- Go and get your brother.
Aller chercher means to go and fetch. French does not repeat the and: aller chercher, aller voir, aller prendre.
How You Are
- Comment allez-vous ?
- How are you?
- Ça va, et toi ?
- I'm fine, and you?
- Mon père va mieux.
- My father is doing better.
- Ça ne va pas du tout.
- Things aren't going well at all.
Health takes aller, not être. Je suis bien means I'm comfortable, not I'm well.
The Near Future
- Je vais te rappeler.
- I'm going to call you back.
- Il va pleuvoir.
- It's going to rain.
- On va être en retard.
- We're going to be late.
- Elles vont déménager en juin.
- They're going to move in June.
Aller plus an infinitive is the everyday spoken future. The present of aller carries the time; the infinitive carries the action.
Suiting and Working
- Cette couleur te va très bien.
- That colour really suits you.
- Est-ce que mardi vous va ?
- Does Tuesday work for you?
- Ces chaussures ne me vont plus.
- These shoes don't fit me any more.
- Ça va comme ça.
- That'll do.
Here the garment or the date is the subject and you are the indirect object: la robe te va, mardi me va.
How Aller Works
An irregular conjugation, an obligatory destination, and a compound past built with être.
Three Stems in One Verb
The present singular uses v-, the present plural and the imperfect use all-, the future and conditional use i-, and the subjunctive uses aill-. Historically these come from different Latin verbs that merged over time.
Je vais, nous allons, j'irai, que j'aille.
I go, we go, I will go, that I go.
vais / allons / irai / aille.
Aller Needs Somewhere To Go
Unlike English go, aller cannot stand alone in the movement sense. You have to name the destination or replace it with the pronoun y, which is why on y va is so frequent.
Tu y vas ce soir ?
Are you going tonight?
aller + destination, or y.
It Takes Être in the Past
Aller is a movement verb, so its compound tenses use être and the participle allé agrees with the subject in gender and number.
Elles sont allées au concert ensemble.
They went to the concert together.
je suis allé, elle est allée, ils sont allés.
Aller + Infinitive Places an Action Just Ahead
With a following infinitive, aller stops meaning movement and starts marking time. Only aller is conjugated; the second verb stays in the infinitive, and object pronouns sit in front of it.
Je vais lui en parler ce soir.
I'm going to speak to him about it tonight.
Conjugate aller, keep the second verb bare.
The Tu Imperative Regains Its S Before Y
The command form is va, without an s. But before the pronoun y it becomes vas, purely so the two words link: vas-y. The same happens with regular -er verbs.
Vas-y, je te suis.
Go on, I'm right behind you.
va, but vas-y.
Common Mistakes with Aller
Incorrect: J'ai allé au marché. — I went to the market.
Correct: Je suis allé au marché. — I went to the market.
Aller is a movement verb and takes être in compound tenses, with the participle agreeing with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont allés.
Incorrect: Je suis bien, merci. — I'm well, thanks.
Correct: Je vais bien, merci. — I'm well, thanks.
French describes health with aller. Je suis bien exists but means I'm comfortable here, which is not what someone asking comment ça va wants to know.
Incorrect: Je vais à le supermarché. — I'm going to the supermarket.
Correct: Je vais au supermarché. — I'm going to the supermarket.
À and le always contract to au, and à and les to aux. The uncontracted forms simply do not exist in French.
Incorrect: Il faut que je vais. — I have to go.
Correct: Il faut que j'aille. — I have to go.
Il faut que triggers the subjunctive, and the subjunctive of aller is aille, not vais. The two stems share no letters, so the substitution has to be learned outright.
Aller Conjugated
This is one of the verbs worth learning as a whole rather than deriving. Every table below contains at least one form you cannot predict.
Simple tenses
The imperfect is perfectly regular on all-. The future and conditional use the shortest stem in French, ir-.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | conditionnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | vais | allais | irai | irais |
| tu | vas | allais | iras | irais |
| il / elle / on | va | allait | ira | irait |
| nous | allons | allions | irons | irions |
| vous | allez | alliez | irez | iriez |
| ils / elles | vont | allaient | iront | iraient |
J'irai is two letters plus an ending. It is the shortest future form in the language and worth recognising instantly.
Compound tenses with être
Allé agrees with the subject, so the ending changes with gender and number. The brackets show the letters a feminine or plural subject adds.
| Pronoun | passé composé | plus-que-parfait | futur antérieur |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | suis allé(e) | étais allé(e) | serai allé(e) |
| tu | es allé(e) | étais allé(e) | seras allé(e) |
| il / elle / on | est allé(e) | était allé(e) | sera allé(e) |
| nous | sommes allé(e)s | étions allé(e)s | serons allé(e)s |
| vous | êtes allé(e)(s) | étiez allé(e)(s) | serez allé(e)(s) |
| ils / elles | sont allé(e)s | étaient allé(e)s | seront allé(e)s |
Vous êtes allé to one man, allée to one woman, allés to a group, allées to a group of women.
Subjunctive and imperative
The subjunctive splits down the middle: aill- for the four singular and third-plural forms, all- for nous and vous.
| Pronoun | subjonctif | impératif |
|---|---|---|
| que je / j' | aille | — |
| que tu | ailles | va |
| qu'il / elle / on | aille | — |
| que nous | allions | allons |
| que vous | alliez | allez |
| qu'ils / elles | aillent | — |
Aille is pronounced like the ay in the English word eye plus a soft y. It appears constantly after il faut que.
Aller Beyond Movement
Three non-movement uses account for a large share of how often you will hear this verb in a day.
Health and how things are going
French asks after wellbeing with aller, not with être. The reply uses an adverb, because you are describing how the going is going.
- Comment ça va ?
- How are things?
- Je vais très bien.
- I'm very well.
- Elle n'allait pas bien hier.
- She wasn't well yesterday.
- Ça va aller.
- It'll be all right.
Because it is an adverb, you say je vais bien, never je vais bon. The same logic gives ça va mal.
Suiting, fitting, and matching
With a garment, a colour, a date or an arrangement as the subject, aller means to suit. The person affected appears as an indirect object pronoun.
- Ce pull te va bien.
- That jumper suits you.
- Le rouge ne me va pas.
- Red doesn't suit me.
- Ça vous va, jeudi ?
- Does Thursday work for you?
- Ces deux couleurs vont bien ensemble.
- Those two colours go well together.
Aller avec is used between two things, aller à for a person: la cravate va avec la chemise, la cravate te va.
Allez, vas-y, and allons
The imperative forms have become interjections that no longer mean go at all. They urge, encourage, concede, or express mild exasperation.
- Allez, on y va !
- Come on, let's go!
- Vas-y, dis-le.
- Go on, say it.
- Allons, ne pleure pas.
- Come now, don't cry.
- Allez, à demain.
- Right then, see you tomorrow.
Allez is used even to a person you address as tu, because it has stopped being a verb form and become a discourse marker.
Aller FAQs
- What does aller mean in French?
- Primarily to go: je vais à Paris. It also means to be, in the sense of health (je vais bien), to suit (cette robe te va), and, with an infinitive, to be about to (je vais partir).
- How do you conjugate aller in the present?
- Je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont. The singular forms and ils vont use one stem, nous and vous another, which is why the verb looks like two verbs stuck together.
- Does aller take être or avoir in the passé composé?
- Être: je suis allé, elle est allée, nous sommes allés. Because of that, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number, which is one of the most visible tests of a movement verb.
- What's the difference between je vais and j'irai?
- Je vais is the present, and with an infinitive it makes the near future: je vais partir. J'irai is the future tense proper, more distant and more formal: j'irai en France l'année prochaine.
- Why do people say ça va so often?
- Because it works as a question, an answer, and a filler. Ça va ? asks how you are, ça va answers that you're fine, and ça va comme ça means that's enough. It is probably the most versatile phrase in spoken French.