Learn French: Le cours commence, tu y vas ? - The lecture is starting, are you going there?

Le cours commence, tu y vas ?

The lecture is starting, are you going there?

Breakdown of Le cours commence, tu y vas ?

you (informal singular)

there (pronoun) / to it

Questions & Answers about Le cours commence, tu y vas ?

Why is y placed before vas instead of after it?

In French, the pronoun y (meaning "there") has to go immediately before the conjugated verb. So, instead of saying "you go there" as we do in English, French speakers say "you there go" (tu y vas).

Can I just ask tu vas ? and leave out the y?

In English, it is perfectly fine to just ask "Are you going?". However, French verbs of movement like aller (to go) require a destination. If you do not state the specific place (like au cours), you must use y to replace it.

The word cours ends in an 's'. Why is it singular here?

Some French words naturally end in 's' even in their singular form. You know cours (class or lecture) is singular in this sentence because it uses the singular article le (not the plural les) and the verb commence is in its singular form.

What exactly does y replace in this sentence?

The pronoun y replaces a location phrase that starts with a preposition like à, dans, or en. Here, it implies going to the place where the lecture is happening, so it stands in for a phrase like au cours (to the class).