Learn French: Tu vas à la pharmacie ou à l'hôpital ? - Are you going to the pharmacy or to the hospital?

Tu vas à la pharmacie ou à l'hôpital ?

Are you going to the pharmacy or to the hospital?

Breakdown of Tu vas à la pharmacie ou à l'hôpital ?

you (informal singular)

at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)

aller

to go

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?