TutorLily
Try for Free
FrenchConjugationPrésent

Aller (to go) · Présent

By TutorLily Editorial Team · Last updated

Aller in the French présent is: je vais, tu vas, il/elle/on va, nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont. The present of aller is highly irregular — none of the forms look like the infinitive. 'Je vais' (I go), 'nous allons' (we go), 'ils vont' (they go). Aller also powers the futur proche: 'je vais manger' (I'm going to eat).

aller conjugation in the Présent
To GoAller
I go
je vais
you go
tu vas
he/she goes
il/elle/on va
we go
nous allons
you go
vous allez
they go
ils/elles vont
Examples

Aller (to go) in context

Sentences that use aller in the présent. Tap each to hear it.

Je vais au cinéma ce soir.

I'm going to the cinema tonight.

Tu vas à Paris demain?

Are you going to Paris tomorrow?

Elle va à l'école en bus.

She goes to school by bus.

Nous allons à la plage ce weekend.

We're going to the beach this weekend.

Vous allez au restaurant?

Are you going to the restaurant?

Ils vont au parc tous les dimanches.

They go to the park every Sunday.

Tip

Working with the présent

French uses the present tense more broadly than English does. "Je parle français" can mean "I speak French," "I am speaking French," or "I do speak French" — context decides. Note that "on" (technically third-person singular: "on parle") is the everyday spoken equivalent of "nous" — French speakers use it constantly in conversation. "Nous parlons" feels more formal or written; "on parle" is what you actually hear in everyday speech.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

How do you conjugate aller in the present tense?
Aller in the present is: je vais, tu vas, il/elle/on va, nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont. The forms come from three different Latin roots — 'vado' (vais, vas, va), 'ambulare' (allons, allez), and 'unde' (vont) — converged into a single verb. Memorise them as a unit; there's no derivation pattern.
How does 'aller + infinitive' work for the future?
'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.
Why does aller have three different stems in the present?
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').
TutorLily

Practice Aller (To Go) in real conversations

TutorLily is your personal language tutor that catches every mistake gently and keeps the conversation going.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

3-day free trial · Cancel anytime · 50+ languages

As seen on
BBC News

More tenses of Aller (To Go)

Next tense →
Aller (to go) · Passé Composé

More verbs in présent

All tenses
Aller (to go)
présent
Être (to be)
présent
Avoir (to have)
présent
Faire (to do)
Get TutorLily