Learn French: Où est-ce qu'ils vont, au Maroc ou à Rome ? - Where are they going, to Morocco or to Rome?

Morocco is a masculine country in French (le Maroc). When saying "to" or "in" a masculine country, you always use the preposition au. If it were a feminine country, you would use en (like en France).

Why is it à Rome and not au Rome?

Rome is a city. In French, you almost always use the preposition à to mean "to" or "in" for cities, without needing to worry about masculine or feminine.

What does est-ce qu' do in this sentence?

It is a question phrase that literally translates to "is it that". Adding it after the question word où (where) is a standard way to form a question in French. It turns the statement ils vont (they are going) into a question.

Why is it qu'ils instead of que ils?

The word que drops its e and gets an apostrophe because the next word, ils, starts with a vowel. This is a very common rule in French to make phrases smoother to pronounce.

I learned that ils vont means "they go". Why is it translated as "they are going"?