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Tu vas à la pharmacie ou à l'hôpital ?

Tu vas à la pharmacie ou à l'hôpital ?
Are you going to the pharmacy or to the hospital?
From Lesson 32:The preposition to/at (à, au, aux)·French

Questions & Answers about Tu vas à la pharmacie ou à l'hôpital ?

Why doesn't à la contract to au in this sentence?
Contractions with the word à (to/at) only happen with the masculine le (à + le = au) and the plural les (à + les = aux). Because pharmacie is feminine, it uses la, and à la never contracts.
Since hôpital is masculine, why isn't it au hôpital?
Even though hôpital is a masculine word, it starts with a silent 'h'. In French, words starting with a vowel or a silent 'h' drop the 'e' or 'a' in le or la and use l' instead. The combination à l' never contracts, so it must stay à l'hôpital.
The translation says 'are going', so why isn't there a word for 'are' in Tu vas?
French doesn't have a separate '-ing' tense like English does. The simple present tense verb vas (from the verb aller, meaning 'to go') translates to both 'you go' and 'you are going'.
Why does the sentence start with Tu vas (You go) instead of a reversed question word order?
In everyday spoken French, it is very common to ask a question simply by using the normal statement word order (Tu vas...) and raising the pitch of your voice at the end. You don't always need to swap the words or use Est-ce que to make it a question.

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