L’eau va bientôt bouillir, alors je prépare les pâtes.

The water is going to boil soon, so I am preparing the pasta.

Breakdown of L’eau va bientôt bouillir, alors je prépare les pâtes.

• je: I
• l'eau: the water
• aller: to go
• préparer: to prepare

Questions & Answers about L’eau va bientôt bouillir, alors je prépare les pâtes.

Why is it l’eau instead of la eau?

Because French normally shortens la to l’ before a word that starts with a vowel sound. This is called elision.

So:

• la + eau → l’eau

You see the same thing in:

• l’école
• l’amie
• l’heure

French avoids the clash of two vowel sounds here.

How does va bientôt bouillir work grammatically?

This is the near future construction:

• aller in the present tense + infinitive

Here:

• va = aller for elle / il / on
• bouillir = to boil

So l’eau va bouillir literally means the water is going to boil.

The adverb bientôt means soon, so:

• va bientôt bouillir = is going to boil soon

Why is bientôt placed between va and bouillir?