Aller (to go) · All tenses

'Aller + infinitive' is French's most common way to express the near future, called 'futur proche' (near future): 'je vais manger' (I'm going to eat), 'nous allons partir' (we're going to leave). It works exactly like English 'going to' and is preferred over the futur simple for any plan in the next minutes, hours, or days. The futur simple ('je mangerai') is reserved for more distant or formal predictions.

Aller is one of the few French verbs that combines forms from completely different Latin verbs — a phenomenon called suppletion. The present 'vais/vas/va/vont' comes from Latin 'vadere' (to advance); 'allons/allez' comes from 'ambulare' (to walk); the futur 'irai' comes from 'ire' (to go). Modern French inherited all three and bundled them into one verb. The same happened in English ('go/went' — went is from 'wend').

Use ÊTRE (not avoir!) as the auxiliary + the past participle 'allé': je suis allé, tu es allé, il est allé / elle est allée, nous sommes allés / allées, vous êtes allé(e)(s), ils sont allés / elles sont allées. The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number — an extra rule that English speakers often forget.

Aller belongs to a small group of motion/state verbs that use être as their passé composé auxiliary — the so-called 'house of être' or 'Dr & Mrs Vandertramp' verbs: aller, venir, partir, sortir, arriver, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, devenir, retourner, entrer, rentrer, passer, revenir. Plus all reflexive verbs. The pattern reflects an older Romance-language tendency to use 'to be' for intransitive motion verbs.

Since aller uses être as its auxiliary, the past participle 'allé' agrees with the subject in both gender and number: il est allé (he went), elle est allée (she went), ils sont allés (they went, masculine or mixed), elles sont allées (they went, all feminine). For nous and vous, the agreement depends on who's actually included. This agreement rule applies to ALL être verbs in the passé composé.

Aller is regular in the imparfait: j'allais, tu allais, il/elle/on allait, nous allions, vous alliez, ils/elles allaient. The stem 'all-' comes from the nous form 'allons' (drop -ons). Despite aller's many other irregularities, the imparfait follows the standard pattern.

Use 'j'allais' for habitual or ongoing past motion: 'chaque été, j'allais à la mer' (every summer, I used to go to the sea). Use 'je suis allé' for a specific completed trip: 'l'été dernier, je suis allé à la mer' (last summer, I went to the sea). 'J'allais' also works for an interrupted motion: 'j'allais sortir quand tu m'as appelé' (I was about to go out when you called me).

'J'allais + infinitive' expresses a past intention that was usually interrupted or never carried out: 'j'allais te dire la même chose' (I was about to tell you the same thing). It's the past-tense version of 'je vais + infinitif' (the going-to future) and is one of the most common ways to talk about plans that didn't happen. The imparfait of aller is the engine for past intention in French.

The subjonctif présent of aller is: que j'aille, que tu ailles, qu'il/elle/on aille, que nous allions, que vous alliez, qu'ils/elles aillent. Singular forms + ils use the irregular stem 'aill-'; nous/vous use the regular stem 'all-' from the imparfait. This split between stems is unusual and trips up most learners.

Use it after triggers of necessity, will, doubt, emotion, or future-pointing time clauses: 'il faut que j'aille' (I need to go), 'je veux que tu ailles' (I want you to go), 'avant qu'il aille' (before he goes), 'bien que nous allions' (although we go). 'Il faut que' + subjonctif is one of the most common French expressions for necessity, and aller appears in it constantly.

Aller's subjonctif stem 'aill-' is irregular and doesn't derive from any other aller form. It comes from a different Latin root than the present indicative — the same way 'aller', 'vais', 'irai', and 'aille' all come from different Latin verbs that merged into one French paradigm. Memorise it as a separate form. The same kind of stem-jumping affects être (sois), avoir (aie), faire (fasse), pouvoir (puisse), savoir (sache).

The futur of aller uses the irregular stem 'ir-': j'irai, tu iras, il/elle/on ira, nous irons, vous irez, ils/elles iront. The standard French future endings attach to 'ir-' rather than the infinitive 'aller'. This same stem is reused for the conditionnel (j'irais).

Aller's futur stem comes from Latin 'ire' (to go) — a completely different verb from 'ambulare' (which gave allons/allez) and 'vadere' (which gave vais/vas/va). Old French speakers used 'ire' specifically for the future and conditional tenses while using vadere/ambulare for the present. Modern French inherited this split-paradigm and kept 'ir-' for the futur. The same suppletion happened to English ('go/went' — went comes from 'wend').

Both express future going. 'J'irai' (futur simple) feels slightly more formal, more committed, or further in time. 'Je vais aller' (futur proche) is more conversational for near-term plans. Interestingly, 'je vais aller' sounds redundant in writing (literally 'I am going to go'), but it's perfectly natural in speech. The futur simple also expresses conjecture: 'il ira sûrement' = 'he'll surely go' (prediction).

The conditionnel présent of aller is: j'irais, tu irais, il/elle/on irait, nous irions, vous iriez, ils/elles iraient. Same irregular stem 'ir-' as the futur, plus imperfect endings (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient).

'J'irais bien' literally means 'I would go well' but idiomatically means 'I'd love to go' or 'I'd like to go'. The 'bien' here is an intensifier meaning 'gladly' or 'willingly', not 'well'. Same construction works for any verb of desire: 'je mangerais bien une pizza' (I'd love a pizza), 'je dormirais bien' (I'd love to sleep). It's a softer, more conversational way to express want than 'je veux'.

Use it for: 1) Hypothetical statements with 'si + imparfait' ('si j'avais le temps, j'irais' — if I had time, I would go), 2) Polite suggestions ('on irait au cinéma?' — should we go to the cinema?), 3) Reported future-in-past ('il a dit qu'il irait' — he said he would go), 4) Hedged plans ('j'irais peut-être' — I might go). The conditionnel of aller is one of the most-used soft-future structures in French.