A1 · The future
Near future: aller + infinitive
«Going to», with the same verb and the same emptiness.
At a glance
- Remember
- It is «going to», with the present of aller.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The future — What is still to come — promised, planned or merely guessed at.
- Form
- je vais partirI am going to leave
- Signal words
- demain
- bientôt
- ce soir
- la semaine prochaine
- Trap
- Wrong:Je suis allant partir demain.Right:Je vais partir demain.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker auxiliary verb
| I am going to leave | je vais partir |
| you are going to see | tu vas voir |
| it is going to rain | il va pleuvoir |
| we are going to eat | nous allons manger |
| you are going to understand | vous allez comprendre |
| they are going to arrive | ils vont arriver |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
aller is conjugated, the second verb stays in the infinitive.
Nous allons déménager en juillet.We are moving house in July.
The negation brackets aller.
Je ne vais pas venir.I am not going to come.
A pronoun goes in front of the infinitive.
Je vais le faire.I am going to do it.
For something very close the present is enough.
Demain je travaille.I am working tomorrow.
Example sentences
Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire ce week-end ?What are you going to do at the weekend?
Il va pleuvoir, prends un parapluie.It is going to rain, take an umbrella.
On va être en retard.We are going to be late.
Je ne vais rien dire.I am not going to say anything.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The construction is yours; the tense of the auxiliary is not. English says «I am going to», with the continuous, and French has no continuous at all — it is je vais partir and never je suis allant partir. The other half of the same habit is «I'll be leaving», which also has no French shape: je vais partir or je partirai, and nothing in between.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Conjugate aller and hang the infinitive on the end: je vais partir. English does exactly this and with exactly the same verb: «I am going to leave». The two languages independently reached for their verb of movement and drained it of meaning.
So the reassuring part is that nobody hears «I am travelling in order to leave» in either language. aller is an auxiliary here, and it has no more to do with going than «going to» does in «it's going to rain».
One shape differs. English needs the progressive — «I am going to», never «I go to» — and French uses the plain present: je vais partir, with the ordinary form of aller. There is no French continuous to build. The negation brackets the conjugated aller: je ne vais pas partir.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: aller · être · faire · dire · prendre · venir · travailler · pleuvoir