Je vais planter des fleurs près de la haie.

Je vais planter is the futur proche, built with aller + infinitive. It is very common in everyday French and often suggests an intention or something that will happen soon.

So:

Je vais planter des fleurs = I’m going to plant flowers

French could also say je planterai des fleurs, which is the simple future. Both are correct, but je vais planter often sounds more immediate or conversational.

After a conjugated form of aller in the futur proche, the second verb stays in the infinitive.

Pattern: subject + aller (conjugated) + infinitive

So:

• je vais planter
• tu vas planter
• nous allons planter

You do not conjugate the second verb here. That is why it is planter, not plante or planté.

Because vais is the je form of the irregular verb aller.

Present tense of aller:

• je vais
• tu vas
• il/elle va
• nous allons
• vous allez
• ils/elles vont

So je vais planter literally follows the normal conjugation of aller.

French usually needs an article or determiner before a noun, where English can often leave it out.

In English, you can say: I’m going to plant flowers

But in French, you normally need something before fleurs:

• des fleurs = some flowers / flowers
• les fleurs = the flowers
• ces fleurs = these flowers

So des fleurs is the natural choice when you mean flowers in a general, indefinite way.

Des fleurs is the plural indefinite article. It means some flowers or simply flowers in a non-specific sense.

Compare:

• Je vais planter des fleurs = I’m going to plant some flowers
• Je vais planter les fleurs = I’m going to plant the flowers

Use des when the flowers are not specifically identified. Use les when both speaker and listener know which flowers are being discussed.

Because près de is the normal fixed expression meaning near or close to.

Examples:

• près de la maison = near the house
• près du jardin = near the garden
• près des arbres = near the trees

You should learn près de as one unit. French does not use près by itself before a noun in this kind of sentence.

There are two things happening here.

First, près de requires de before the noun.

Second, haie is a feminine singular noun, so its article is la.

That gives: près de + la haie = près de la haie

It is not du, because du = de + le, and haie is not masculine.

It is not de l’ because haie begins with an aspirated h, so French does not elide the article. You say:

• la haie not
• l’haie

Both fleur and haie are feminine nouns.

So:

• une fleur
• la fleur
• une haie
• la haie

Yes, gender matters because it affects the articles:

• des fleurs is plural, so gender is less visible there
• la haie shows clearly that haie is feminine singular

If you later add adjectives, gender may matter even more:

• une belle fleur
• une haute haie

Haie is pronounced roughly like eh in English, just one syllable.

The special point is that its h is not pronounced, but it behaves like an aspirated h in grammar. That means:

• no elision: la haie, not l’haie
• no liaison: les haies is said without a z sound between the words

So in your sentence, près de la haie is pronounced roughly: prè de la è

Yes. Depending on context, you could also hear:

• à côté de la haie = next to the hedge
• proche de la haie = close to the hedge

But they are not always exactly the same. Près de is the most neutral and common way to say near. À côté de can sound more like right beside. Proche de is also correct, but a little less basic in everyday beginner French.