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Marie va à la piscine.

Marie va à la piscine.
Marie goes to the pool.
FromLesson 13inHardcore French

Breakdown of Marie va à la piscine.

Marie
Marie
aller
to go
à
to
la piscine
the pool

Questions & Answers about Marie va à la piscine.

What does the verb va mean in this sentence, and how is it conjugated?
Va is the third person singular present form of the irregular verb aller, which means to go. In the sentence Marie va à la piscine, it translates to goes, indicating that Marie is presently going to the pool.
Why is the preposition à used in this sentence?
The preposition à is used to indicate direction or destination. In French, when expressing a movement toward a location, à is required. In this sentence, à la piscine translates as to the pool, showing where Marie is going.
Why is the article la used before piscine?
In French, every noun has a gender, and piscine is a feminine noun. This is why it takes the feminine definite article la. The phrase à la piscine means to the pool, with la corresponding to the English the, but reflecting the noun's gender in French.
How is the sentence Marie va à la piscine structured, and how does that compare to English sentence structure?

The sentence follows a simple Subject–Verb–Prepositional Phrase structure:
• Marie is the subject,
• va (goes) is the verb, and
• à la piscine is the prepositional phrase indicating destination.
This is very similar to English, which would be structured as Marie goes to the pool.

How does the use of definite articles in French differ from English in phrases like à la piscine?
In French, definite articles are used much more systematically with nouns, even when referring to a specific location. In the phrase à la piscine, the article la is mandatory because piscine is feminine. Although English also uses the in to the pool, French requires the article to agree with the gender of the noun, and it is always included in such constructions.
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“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).

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