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Nous allons dans le nord.

Nous allons dans le nord.
We are going to the north.
From Lesson 34:Prepositions for cities and countries (à, en, au, aux)·French

Breakdown of Nous allons dans le nord.

aller
to go
le nord
the north

Questions & Answers about Nous allons dans le nord.

The lesson teaches à, en, and au for places. Why does this sentence use dans le?
Cities use à and countries use en, au, or aux. However, for compass directions (north, south, east, west), French uses dans le or dans l' to say you are going to or are located in that general area.
Wait, doesn't dans mean "in"? Why does the English translation say "to"?
You are right, dans usually means "in" or "inside". But in French, when you talk about traveling to a region or a direction, you literally say you are going "in the north" (dans le nord). English just naturally phrases this as going "to the north".
Why isn't nord capitalized?
In French, compass directions like le nord (the north) and le sud (the south) are written in lowercase when they refer to a general direction or area. They are only capitalized if they are part of the official proper name of a political region.
Just to double-check, is allons a regular verb?
No! The verb aller (to go) is highly irregular. Even though it ends in -er, it doesn't follow the normal pattern. Nous allons (we go / we are going) is a form you simply have to memorize.

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