Learn Italian: Il bambino non va al ristorante oggi. - The child is not going to the restaurant today.

Va is the "he/she/it" form of the highly irregular verb andare (to go). Because it is irregular, it does not use the standard endings for -are verbs, so you just have to memorize that "the child goes" is il bambino va.

The translation says "is not going". Can va also mean "goes"?

Yes! Italian does not usually use a separate tense for things happening right now like English does. The simple present tense form va can translate to "goes", "is going", or even "does go".

Where does the word al come from?

Al is a combined word. When the preposition a (to) is followed by the definite article il (the), they merge together. Since ristorante is a masculine noun that takes il, "to the restaurant" becomes al ristorante.

Why does non come before va?

In Italian, to make a sentence negative, you always put non directly in front of the verb. While in English we say "is not going", Italian simply puts the negative word first to make non va.