Learn French: Bon week-end ! Je vais à la mer. - Have a good weekend! I am going to the sea.

Bon week-end ! Je vais à la mer.

Have a good weekend! I am going to the sea.

Breakdown of Bon week-end ! Je vais à la mer.

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

Questions & Answers about Bon week-end ! Je vais à la mer.

Why is there no word for "a" in Bon week-end?

In French, when you are wishing someone a good time, like "have a good trip" (bon voyage) or "have a good weekend" (bon week-end), you drop the word for "a" (un or une). You use the masculine adjective bon because week-end is a masculine noun.

Is week-end really a French word?

Yes! French borrows a number of words from English. It is usually written with a hyphen (week-end) and pronounced with a slight French accent. Like most borrowed English words, it is treated as a masculine noun.

What verb is vais from? It doesn't look like a normal verb.

Vais is the "I" form of the highly irregular verb aller, which means "to go". Because it is irregular, je vais (I go or I am going) doesn't look at all like its base form. It is a very common word that you just have to memorize.

Why do we need la in à la mer? Can't I just say à mer?

In English, we say "to the sea", and French does the exact same thing here: à means "to" and la means "the". In French, you almost always need an article (like "the" or "a") before a noun. Because mer (sea) is a feminine noun, we use la.