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Ils vont au musée parce qu'ils ont le temps.

Ils vont au musée parce qu'ils ont le temps.
They are going to the museum because they have the time.
From Lesson 31:The verb to go (aller)·French

Questions & Answers about Ils vont au musée parce qu'ils ont le temps.

Why does the verb aller turn into vont here?
Aller (to go) is a highly irregular verb, meaning its forms do not follow the normal rules. For ils or elles (they), the correct present tense form is vont (they go / they are going). It is one of the essential verbs you just have to memorize!
Where does the word au come from?
Au is a mandatory combination of à (to/at) and le (the). Because musée is a masculine word, you might expect to say à le musée, but in French, à and le always merge into au. You can never say à le.
Why is there an apostrophe in parce qu'ils?
Parce que means "because". When que is followed by a word starting with a vowel, like ils (they), the e is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe to make it flow better when speaking. This makes parce que ils become parce qu'ils.
I get confused between ont, sont, and vont. Which one is ont?
It is very common to mix these up because they look so similar! Ont is from the verb avoir (to have), so ils ont means "they have". Sont is from être (to be), meaning "they are". And vont, which we see at the start of this sentence, is from aller (to go), meaning "they are going". They all share that -ont ending for their "they" forms.

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