A1
aller + infinitive — the near future
How French expresses the future with aller plus an infinitive, how it compares with the simple future, and where the negative goes.
Conjugate aller, then add the infinitive unchanged.
| je vais | nous allons |
| tu vas | vous allez |
| il / elle va | ils / elles vont |
Je vais partir demain.
I go to-leave tomorrow
I’m going to leave tomorrow.
On va manger.
one goes to-eat
We’re going to eat.
English does exactly the same thing with going to, which makes this one of the few French structures that needs no rethinking.
It has largely replaced the simple future
French does have a proper future tense — je partirai — but in conversation the aller form does most of the work, and for anything in the next few days it is what people say.
Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire ce week-end ?
what is-it that you go to-do this weekend
What are you going to do this weekend?
The negative wraps aller, not the infinitive
Ne and pas go around the conjugated verb only.
Je ne vais pas venir.
I not go not to-come
I’m not going to come.
Je vais ne pas venir.
Je ne vais pas venir.
The negative belongs to the conjugated verb. Ne pas before an infinitive does exist — il m’a dit de ne pas venir — but it means something narrower and is not the ordinary negative.
aller also just means to go
Je vais à Paris.
I go to Paris
I’m going to Paris.
With a place it is the plain verb; with an infinitive it is the future. Nothing marks which except what follows.