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A1  ·  The future

aller + infinitive

«Going to», with the same verb and the same emptiness.

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.

Die Form

I am going to leaveje vais partir
you are going to seetu vas voir
it is going to rainil va pleuvoir
we are going to eatnous allons manger
you are going to understandvous allez comprendre
they are going to arriveils vont arriver

Die Regeln im Einzelnen

  1. aller is conjugated, the second verb stays in the infinitive.

    Nous allons déménager en juillet.We are moving house in July.

  2. The negation brackets aller.

    Je ne vais pas venir.I am not going to come.

  3. A pronoun goes in front of the infinitive.

    Je vais le faire.I am going to do it.

  4. For something very close the present is enough.

    Demain je travaille.I am working tomorrow.

Woran man es erkennt

  • demain
  • bientôt
  • ce soir
  • la semaine prochaine

Beispielsätze

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.

Die typisch deutsche Falle

Aufgepasst

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.

Falsch:Je suis allant partir demain.
Richtig:Je vais partir demain.

It is «going to», with the present of aller.

Jetzt selbst

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