Aller: Complete Paradigm Reference

This is the complete paradigm reference for aller — every simple tense, every compound tense, every mood, including the literary forms (allasse, fusse allé) that you will rarely produce but must recognize when reading. The everyday treatment of aller — the four core uses, the futur proche, the idioms, the most common mistakes — lives at verb-reference/aller. This page is for the moments when you need to look up a form, including the obscure ones.

Aller is the most irregular verb in the otherwise regular -er class, and the irregularity has a fascinating origin. The verb is suppletive: its paradigm draws on three different Latin verbs that historical accident fused into a single conjugation. Understanding the three roots makes the irregularity feel less arbitrary.

Etymology: three Latin verbs in one French conjugation

French aller descends from a merger of three unrelated Latin verbs. Each contributed specific forms to the modern paradigm.

This three-way suppletion is unusual in French — most irregular verbs descend from a single Latin source with phonetic alterations. Aller is exceptional. The pattern is similar to English go (went comes from a different Old English verb, wend), Spanish ir (which also fuses VADERE and IRE), and Italian andare.

The practical takeaway: there is no single underlying root. You must learn the three stems separately — va-/vai-/vont for the strong present, all- for the weak present and most other simple tenses, and ir- for the futur and conditionnel.

Simple tenses: complete paradigms

Présent de l'indicatif

The most irregular paradigm. Three stems: vai- (1sg), va- (2sg, 3sg, impératif tu), vont (3pl), and all- (1pl, 2pl).

Imparfait

Built on the all- stem (from nous allons) plus the standard imparfait endings. Fully predictable.

Passé simple (literary)

Standard -er passé simple paradigm on the all- stem. Encountered in novels, biographies, and historical writing — almost never in speech.

The circumflex on allâmes and allâtes is obligatory and historically marks a lost -s-. Without it, the form would collide with the imparfait allions/alliez.

Futur simple

Stem ir- (from Latin IRE). Endings are the regular futur endings.

Conditionnel présent

Same ir- stem as the futur, with imparfait endings.

Subjonctif présent

Two stems: aill- (1sg, 2sg, 3sg, 3pl) and all- (1pl, 2pl). The split mirrors the strong/weak distinction of the present indicative.

The 1pl and 2pl forms (allions, alliez) are identical to the imparfait of the indicative — context disambiguates.

Subjonctif imparfait (literary)

Built on the passé-simple stem alla-, with the standard subjunctive-imparfait endings. Used almost exclusively in literary writing — and rarely even there in modern texts.

The 3sg form allât (with circumflex) is the most likely to appear in modern literary writing — it can substitute for the present subjunctive in rigorously sequenced narrative tenses (il fallait qu'il allât). The other forms sound mannered or comic.

Impératif

Three forms. The tu form is va (no -s), but takes an -s before the pronoun y to ease pronunciation: vas-y.

Special case: vas-y. The -s is restored before the pronoun y to prevent the hiatus va-y from being unpronounceable. The same euphonic -s applies to -er verbs (whose tu imperative also lacks -s) before y or en: parle → parles-en, donne → donnes-en. Aller follows that general rule — it just happens to be the verb where the rule is most visible because vas-y is so common.

Participles and gérondif

The participe passé allé agrees with the subject in compound tenses (since aller takes être as auxiliary). The gérondif en allant expresses simultaneity or means: en allant à la poste, j'ai croisé Pierre — "on my way to the post office, I bumped into Pierre."

Compound tenses: complete paradigms

Aller is a maison-d'être verb. All compound tenses are formed with être + allé(e)(s). The participle agrees with the subject.

Passé composé (être présent + allé(e)(s))

Plus-que-parfait (être imparfait + allé(e)(s))

Passé antérieur (literary, être passé simple + allé(e)(s))

Used in literary narrative after temporal conjunctions (dès qu'il fut allé...) — encountered in 19th-century novels and formal historical writing.

Futur antérieur (être futur + allé(e)(s))

Conditionnel passé (être conditionnel + allé(e)(s))

Subjonctif passé (être subjonctif + allé(e)(s))

Plus-que-parfait du subjonctif (literary, être subj. imparfait + allé(e)(s))

The plus-que-parfait du subjonctif (also called the deuxième forme du conditionnel passé when used independently of a que-clause) is rare in modern French. It survives mostly in literary or carefully formal writing — and is sometimes encountered as a stylistic conditional: qui l'eût cru, qu'elle fût allée si loin — "who would have believed she'd gone so far."

Idioms and high-frequency uses (cross-reference)

The everyday uses of aller — motion, futur proche, health (ça va), clothing fit (cette robe te va), abstract direction — are covered in detail at verb-reference/aller. This page is the paradigm reference; use the everyday page for usage examples and idiom lists.

A condensed reminder:

• Motion: je vais à Paris (à
  • city, en
    • feminine country, au
      • masculine country, aux
        • plural country, chez
          • person)
• Futur proche: je vais partir (no preposition between aller and the infinitive)
• Greeting: ça va, comment vas-tu, je vais bien
• Clothing fit: cette couleur te va bien
• Idioms: vas-y, allons-y, allez-y, s'en aller, y aller, allons donc, ça va sans dire, aller chercher, aller voir

Comparison with English

Three friction points worth restating in a paradigm reference.

1. No preposition between aller and the infinitive. Je vais partir, never je vais à partir. The English "to" in "going to leave" belongs to the infinitive marker, not to a hidden French preposition.

2. Compound tenses use être. Je suis allé, never j'ai allé. The participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont allés, elles sont allées.

3. The futur and conditionnel use a different stem. Ir- in j'irai, j'irais has no obvious connection to aller — it descends from a separate Latin verb (IRE). Memorize it as a closed paradigm; do not try to derive it from aller.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Inserting à between aller and the infinitive.

Mistake 2: Using avoir in compound tenses.

Mistake 3: Trying to derive futur from aller directly.

Mistake 4: Forgetting the -s in vas-y.

Mistake 5: Wrong preposition with country.

Mistake 6: Confusing the homophonous allions/alliez.

The 1pl and 2pl forms allions, alliez are identical in the imparfait of the indicative and the present subjunctive. Learners sometimes worry they've used the wrong mood — but the trigger does the work for them. After il faut que, pour que, bien que etc., the form is the subjunctive even though it looks like the imparfait.

This is a recognition issue rather than a production error: produce the form allions and let the syntactic context decide which mood it represents.

Key takeaways

Aller is suppletive — its paradigm draws on three Latin verbs (VADERE, AMBULARE, IRE). The present has three stems (vai-/va-/vont, all-), the imparfait, passé simple, and participles use all-, and the futur and conditionnel use ir-.

In compound tenses, aller takes être as auxiliary, and the participle allé agrees with the subject. The construction aller + infinitive is the futur proche — the dominant way to express future in spoken French.

The literary tenses — passé simple (il alla), subjonctif imparfait (qu'il allât), passé antérieur (dès qu'il fut allé), plus-que-parfait du subjonctif (qu'il fût allé) — are essential for reading 19th-century novels and formal academic prose, but you will rarely produce them. Recognize them; do not attempt to deploy them in conversation.

This page is the paradigm reference. For the everyday usage — motion patterns, futur proche, the ça va greeting, clothing fit, idioms — see verb-reference/aller.