Learn Italian: Marco va al cinema stasera. - Marco is going to the cinema tonight.

Andare (to go) is a highly irregular verb. Instead of following normal -are verb rules, its forms change completely. For 'he/she/it goes' (or 'is going'), the correct form is va.

The translation says 'Marco is going', but doesn't va mean 'Marco goes'?

In Italian, the simple present tense (va) translates to both 'he goes' (a regular habit) and 'he is going' (happening right now or in the near future). Italian doesn't usually need a separate 'is going' form like English does.

What does al mean here, and why can't I just say a il cinema?

Al means 'to the'. In Italian, when the preposition a (to) meets the masculine definite article il (the), they must combine into the single word al. You will never see a il written separately.

Since cinema ends in an '-a', shouldn't it be a feminine word? Why do we use the masculine al instead of the feminine alla?

Cinema is an exception to the usual rule that words ending in '-a' are feminine. It is a masculine noun because it is short for the older word cinematografo. That's why we use the masculine forms il and al.