Aller + Infinitive: The Easy French Future

Here’s some great news for your first week of French: you can already talk about the future. If you can conjugate one verb — aller, “to go” — you can express plans, intentions, and things about to happen, with zero new conjugations to memorize. The French call this the futur proche, the “near future,” and it’s the construction native speakers reach for in everyday conversation. Forget the dense two-tense comparison tables for now. This is the shortcut you can use today.

What is the futur proche?

The futur proche describes an action coming up soon, usually with a plan or intention already behind it. It maps almost perfectly onto English going to + verb, which makes it one of the most intuitive structures in the whole language for an English speaker. When you say je vais manger, you’re literally saying “I am going to eat” — the same logic, word for word.

In spoken French it does even more heavy lifting than English “going to”: casual speakers use it for the future at almost any distance, not just the next few minutes. If you’re chatting, texting, or writing informally, the futur proche is your safe default.

The formula: aller (present) + infinitive

The recipe has exactly two ingredients: aller conjugated in the present tense, plus the infinitive of whatever you’re going to do.

Conjugating aller in the present

This is the only piece that changes. Most beginners learn it early, so it’s probably already familiar:

Subject	aller (present)	English
je	vais	I go / am going
tu	vas	you go (informal)
il / elle / on	va	he / she / one goes
nous	allons	we go
vous	allez	you go (formal/plural)
ils / elles	vont	they go

Attaching the infinitive (it never changes)

Now grab any action verb in its dictionary form — the infinitive — and stick it on the end. It stays frozen no matter who the subject is.

French	English
Je vais manger	I'm going to eat
Tu vas étudier	You're going to study
Il va partir	He's going to leave
Nous allons travailler	We're going to work
Ils vont arriver bientôt	They're going to arrive soon

Notice how the verbs after aller — manger (“to eat”), partir (“to leave”) — never get conjugated. That’s the whole trick.

When to use the futur proche

Reach for it whenever the future feels near or planned:

• Plans and intentions: Ce week-end, je vais visiter le musée. (This weekend I’m going to visit the museum.)
• Things about to happen: Attention, tu vas tomber ! (Careful, you’re going to fall!)
• Near-certain outcomes: Il y a beaucoup de nuages — il va pleuvoir. (Lots of clouds — it’s going to rain.)

That last one uses pleuvoir (“to rain”), and the certainty is the point. A pregnant woman says Je vais avoir un enfant (“I’m going to have a child”) rather than the simple future — the futur proche signals an event that’s already in motion.

Futur proche vs futur simple — the spoken-vs-written rule

French has a second future, the futur simple (je mangerai, “I will eat”), with its own endings and irregular stems. Beginners panic over choosing between them, but the rule is simpler than the textbooks make it look — and it’s about register, not grammar. Both are correct; they just sound different.

French	English	Use
Je vais t'appeler ce soir	I'm going to call you tonight	futur proche — casual
On va regarder un film	We're going to watch a film	futur proche — plans
Le président prononcera un discours	The president will give a speech	futur simple — formal
Un jour, les voitures voleront	One day, cars will fly	futur simple — distant

The takeaway: speaking or writing informally → futur proche. Save the futur simple for formal writing, distant predictions, solemn promises (je t’aimerai toujours, “I’ll love you forever”), and after si, quand, or dès que. In casual speech the futur simple sounds a touch elevated — marked, not wrong. If you’re unsure, the futur proche is almost always the natural choice in conversation.

Making it negative

To say you’re not going to do something, wrap ne … pas around the conjugated aller. The infinitive stays put at the end — don’t let the negation drift onto it.

French	English
Je ne vais pas sortir	I'm not going to go out
Nous n'allons jamais abandonner	We're never going to give up

The same goes for other negatives like ne … jamais (“never”) and ne … plus (“no longer”) — they all bracket the conjugated verb, leaving the infinitive alone.

Pronouns: reflexive and object verbs

Here’s where English speakers stumble, because the pronoun sits in a surprising spot.

Reflexive verbs (je vais me lever)

With a reflexive verb, the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous, se) jumps to sit directly in front of the infinitive — and it has to match the subject:

French	English
Je vais me lever tôt	I'm going to get up early
Tu vas te reposer	You're going to rest
Elles vont s'amuser	They're going to have fun

Object pronouns (je vais le faire)

Object pronouns (le, la, les, lui, leur, en, y) follow the same rule: they hug the infinitive, not aller.

French	English
Je vais le faire	I'm going to do it
Tu vas les voir demain	You're going to see them tomorrow
Nous allons lui parler	We're going to talk to him/her

Here the infinitives are faire (“to do/make”) and voir (“to see”). If pronoun order still feels slippery, our guide to French object pronouns: le, la, lui, and leur untangles it.

The je vais aller edge case

What if the action itself is “to go”? You simply conjugate present-tense aller and follow it with the infinitive aller — yes, the word twice:

• Je vais aller au cinéma. (I’m going to go to the cinema.)
• On va aller à la plage. (We’re going to go to the beach.)

It looks odd, but it’s perfectly correct and extremely common.

8 common mistakes to avoid

1. Conjugating the second verb. Not je vais mange — it’s je vais manger. The action verb stays an infinitive.
2. Misconjugating aller. Watch nous allons and ils vont (not nous allez or ils va).
3. Defaulting to the present. Je vais partir demain is the natural near future; lean on it rather than the bare present.
4. Pronoun before aller. Not je le vais faire — it’s je vais le faire.
5. Negation around the infinitive. Not je vais ne pas sortir — it’s je ne vais pas sortir.
6. Adding “to.” Not je vais à manger — French attaches the infinitive directly.
7. Reaching for the futur simple too soon. Saying je mangerai to a friend about dinner sounds stiff.
8. Reflexive pronoun mismatch. Not nous allons se dépêcher — it’s nous allons nous dépêcher.

A handful of near-future time words make these patterns click faster: bientôt (“soon”), demain (“tomorrow”), ce soir (“tonight”), and ce week-end (“this weekend”). Try Demain, je vais commencer un nouveau travail (“Tomorrow I’m going to start a new job”).

Where to go next

You now have a full future tense for the price of one verb. Practice swapping infinitives into je vais … until it’s automatic, then keep building: the passé composé with avoir and être opens up the past the same way. Pick three things you’re going to do tomorrow and say them out loud — vous allez voir, you’ll be talking about the future like a local.