Je vais faire griller le saumon pour le dîner.

Because aller (to go) is an irregular verb.

Its present-tense forms are:

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

So je vais is simply the correct I go / I’m going form of aller.

Je vais + infinitive is the near future in French. It often means I’m going to ... and is extremely common in everyday speech.

So:

• Je vais faire griller le saumon = I’m going to grill / have the salmon grilled
• Je ferai griller le saumon = I will grill / have the salmon grilled

Both are possible, but je vais... usually sounds more immediate and conversational.

This sentence combines two structures:

1. aller + infinitive for the near future

   • je vais faire...

2. faire + infinitive for causing something to happen

   • faire griller

So the only conjugated verb is vais.
Both faire and griller stay in the infinitive.

That is completely normal in French.

Literally, faire griller means something like to make grill or to have grilled.

In a cooking context, though, it often just means to grill or to get something grilled.

So in practice, faire griller le saumon can correspond to natural English like:

• grill the salmon
• have the salmon grilled

The exact nuance depends on context.

Not always, but it often suggests that idea.

In many situations, faire + infinitive means to have something done or to cause something to happen:

• Je fais réparer ma voiture = I’m having my car repaired

With cooking, though, French often uses faire + cooking verb quite naturally even when the speaker is basically the one preparing the food.

So here, Je vais faire griller le saumon may sound a bit like:

• I’m going to have the salmon grilled
• or simply I’m going to grill the salmon

If you want to make it very clear that you yourself are doing the grilling, Je vais griller le saumon is more direct.

Yes, absolutely.

• Je vais griller le saumon = a straightforward way to say I’m going to grill the salmon
• Je vais faire griller le saumon = can sound a bit more like I’m going to have the salmon grilled or simply a slightly more cooking-style phrasing

Both are possible, but Je vais griller le saumon is often the simpler choice for a learner.

French usually needs an article before a noun.

So where English can say:

• I’m cooking salmon

French normally says something like:

• Je cuisine du saumon
• Je cuisine le saumon

In your sentence, le saumon refers to a specific salmon dish, piece of salmon, or the salmon already understood from context.

French uses articles much more consistently than English, so leaving the article out would sound wrong here.

Because le and du do different jobs.

• le saumon = the salmon, a specific salmon or salmon already known in context
• du saumon = some salmon, an indefinite quantity

So:

• Je vais faire griller le saumon suggests a particular salmon
• Je vais faire griller du saumon would mean I’m going to grill some salmon

Both can be correct, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.

Because pour expresses purpose or intended use.

• pour le dîner = for dinner
• au dîner = at dinner / during dinner

So:

• Je vais faire griller le saumon pour le dîner = I’m making it for the dinner meal
• Je vais faire griller le saumon au dîner would sound more like something happening at dinnertime, which is not the main idea here

Here it is a noun.

You can tell because it has the article le:

• le dîner = dinner / the evening meal

But dîner can also be a verb:

• Je dîne = I’m having dinner
• Nous allons dîner = We’re going to have dinner

So dîner is one of those French words that can be either a noun or a verb depending on the structure.

In standard modern French, especially in France, le dîner usually means the evening meal.

That said, meal words can vary by region. In some places or older usage, the terms for lunch and dinner can shift.

For most learners, the safest rule is:

• le déjeuner = lunch
• le dîner = dinner / evening meal

It goes before faire:

• Je vais le faire griller pour le dîner.

That literally follows the French pronoun rules for this construction.

Compare:

• Je vais griller le saumon → Je vais le griller
• Je vais faire griller le saumon → Je vais le faire griller

So in the faire + infinitive structure, the object pronoun usually comes before faire.

A rough English-style guide is:

zhuh vay fehr gree-YAY luh soh-MOHN poor luh dee-NAY

A few useful points:

• Je sounds like zhuh
• vais sounds roughly like vay
• faire sounds like fehr
• griller ends with a -yé sound: gree-YAY
• saumon sounds roughly like soh-MOHN, but the final n is not pronounced as a full English n
• dîner sounds like dee-NAY

Also, French rhythm is smoother than English, so try to say it as one flowing group rather than stressing every word strongly.