Nous mangeons au restaurant ce soir.

We are eating at the restaurant tonight.

Breakdown of Nous mangeons au restaurant ce soir.

• manger: to eat
• nous: we
• le restaurant: the restaurant
• ce soir: tonight

Questions & Answers about Nous mangeons au restaurant ce soir.

Why is it mangeons and not mangons?

The verb is manger (to eat), which ends in -ger.
In the nous form of the present tense, -ger verbs keep an extra e before -ons to preserve the soft g sound:

• je mange
• tu manges
• il/elle/on mange
• nous mangeons
• vous mangez
• ils/elles mangent

Without that e (mangons), the g would be pronounced hard, like in gare, which would be wrong here. So mangeons is the correct spelling and pronunciation.

What tense is mangeons, and why does it refer to the future?

Mangeons is in the present indicative tense.

French often uses the present tense to talk about a near future, especially when the time is clearly stated:

• Nous mangeons au restaurant ce soir.
  = We are eating at the restaurant this evening.

Because ce soir (this evening) is added, the time reference is clear, so present tense in French naturally corresponds to “we’re eating” / “we’re going to eat” in English. You could also say:

• Nous allons manger au restaurant ce soir. (near-future construction, literally “we are going to eat…”)

Both are correct, but the simple present is very common in everyday speech.