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Questions & Answers about Marie va au concert.
What is the conjugation of aller in the sentence Marie va au concert?
In this sentence, va is the third person singular present tense form of aller. It indicates that Marie is currently going (or regularly goes) to the concert.
Why is the preposition à contracted to au in this sentence?
The contraction occurs because concert is a masculine singular noun. In French, à + le (meaning “to the”) contracts to au. So instead of saying à le concert, it becomes au concert.
How does the structure of this sentence compare to English word order?
The sentence follows a subject-verb-prepositional phrase structure, much like English. Marie is the subject, va is the verb, and au concert serves as the prepositional phrase indicating destination. The main difference is that French uses contractions (like au) that English does not.
How would I form the negative version of Marie va au concert?
To make the sentence negative in French, you typically place ne before the verb and pas after it. The negative form is: Marie ne va pas au concert. (In everyday speech, the ne is sometimes dropped.)
What changes if I want to say that Marie goes to concerts in general (plural)?
When referring to plural nouns, the definite article changes accordingly. Since à + les contracts to aux, the sentence becomes: Marie va aux concerts.