Aller is the third verb every learner needs, after être and avoir, and it is the one that causes the most trouble. Not the conjugation, which is short, but what comes after it.
The whole difficulty is that French chooses the preposition based on the gender and number of the destination, and on whether that destination is a place, a person, a country or a city. Once you see those as four separate rules rather than one confusing one, it becomes mechanical.
Aller in the présent
Completely irregular, and worth learning as a block. The nous and vous forms are the only ones that look like the infinitive.
| Pronoun | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| je | vais | Je vais au marché. |
| tu | vas | Tu vas à la gare ? |
| il / elle / on | va | On va au cinéma ce soir. |
| nous | allons | Nous allons à l'aéroport. |
| vous | allez | Vous allez chez le médecin ? |
| ils / elles | vont | Ils vont aux États-Unis. |
Going to a place
À contracts with the definite article. À + le becomes au, à + les becomes aux, and these contractions are compulsory, never optional.
| Preposition | When | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| au | Masculine place | le cinéma, le théâtre, le restaurant, le supermarché, le parc |
| à la | Feminine place | la maison, la piscine, la montagne, la plage, la gare |
| à l' | Vowel or silent h | l'église, l'école, l'aéroport, l'hôtel, l'usine |
| aux | Plural place | les toilettes, les grands magasins, les bureaux, les urgences |
| chez | A person or their place of work | le coiffeur, le dentiste, Julie, mon ami, Madame Cerise |
Going to a country or a city
A different system, and the one that catches out even intermediate learners. Country gender is what decides it, and almost every country ending in -e is feminine.
| Preposition | When | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| en | Feminine country, or one starting with a vowel | en France, en Suisse, en Espagne, en Angleterre, en Iran |
| au | Masculine country | au Portugal, au Japon, au Canada, au Mexique |
| aux | Plural country | aux États-Unis, aux Seychelles, aux Philippines, aux Pays-Bas |
| à | City | à Paris, à New York, à Hong Kong, à Taïwan, à Bangkok |
The four mistakes to avoid
Never write à le or à les. They do not exist. À le cinéma is always au cinéma, à les toilettes is always aux toilettes. This is the most common written mistake at A1, and it is entirely mechanical, so it is also the easiest to eliminate.
Chez is for people, not places. Je vais chez le dentiste, not à le dentiste and not au dentiste. If the destination is a person, even a person defined by their job, it is chez. The exception you will hear is a shop named after a person: je vais chez Carrefour is wrong, but je vais chez le boulanger is right.
Le Mexique is masculine despite ending in -e, so it is au Mexique. It sits with a small group of exceptions including le Cambodge, le Zimbabwe and le Mozambique. Everything else ending in -e can be treated as feminine.
One destination that does not work this way: shopping. Aller aux courses is heard in some regions, but the standard phrase is faire les courses, or aller faire les courses. The pattern on this page covers places, and les courses is an activity rather than a place.
The bonus you get for free
Once aller is automatic, you also have the futur proche, which is how French people actually talk about the future in conversation: aller conjugated, plus an infinitive. Je vais manger, tu vas partir, on va voir.
This is the tense to use in your first months. Le futur simple exists and you will need it eventually, but je vais le faire demain is far more natural in speech than je le ferai demain, and it costs you nothing extra to learn.