Breakdown of J'allais passer à la pharmacie pour acheter du sirop.
je
I
pour
for
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
acheter
to buy
aller
to go
la pharmacie
the pharmacy
du
some (partitive, masculine)
la
her, it (feminine direct object pronoun)
le sirop
the syrup
passer
to pass by / go past
Questions & Answers about J'allais passer à la pharmacie pour acheter du sirop.
Does j'allais passer mean I actually went to the pharmacy?
The verb aller is in the imparfait (imperfect) tense here: j'allais. When you use aller in the imparfait followed by an infinitive (like passer), it translates to 'I was going to [do something].' This structure specifically expresses an unfulfilled past intention, meaning you planned to go, but likely didn't end up doing it.
Why use passer à here instead of aller à?
While aller à simply means 'to go to,' passer à is a very common everyday phrase that means 'to drop by,' 'to pop into,' or 'to stop by' a place briefly.
Why do we need pour before acheter?
In English, we usually just say 'to buy' to explain our purpose for doing something. In French, to express 'in order to,' you must use pour followed directly by the infinitive verb. Without pour, the sentence wouldn't make grammatical sense.
Why is it du sirop instead of just sirop or le sirop?
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