Why this matters

These three verbs appear in almost every French conversation. "Where are you going?" "Can you help me?" "Are you coming?" — you can't get through a day in France without them. They're irregular, so you simply need to learn each form. On the DELF A2 oral exam, "aller + infinitive" (the near future) is one of the most-tested structures for describing plans, so getting comfortable with it now pays off directly.

🦝 Remy says: "Irregular verbs are like celebrities — they don't follow the rules, but everyone knows them. The good news? There aren't many of them, and you'll use these three every single day."

Document Déclencheur

SMS entre amis Théo : On va au ciné ce soir, tu viens ? Sam : Je peux pas, je dois bosser 😩 Théo : Dommage ! Tu peux venir demain alors ? Sam : Oui, demain je peux !

What do you notice?

"On va au ciné" and "tu viens" both come from irregular verbs — can you spot both infinitives? (aller, venir)
Sam says "je peux pas" instead of the full "je ne peux pas" — what's happening here? (dropping ne is extremely common in spoken French, especially in texts)
Sam uses "je peux" twice, with opposite outcomes — what's the difference? (the first is negated by dropped ne...pas, the second is a plain affirmative — same verb, same form, totally different meaning by context)

ALLER — To Go

ALLER is completely irregular — it doesn't even look like its own infinitive!

Pronoun	Form	Example
je	vais	Je vais au marché. = I'm going to the market.
tu	vas	Tu vas où ? = Where are you going?
il/elle/on	va	Elle va bien. = She's doing well.
nous	allons	Nous allons au cinéma. = We're going to the cinema.
vous	allez	Vous allez à Lyon ? = Are you going to Lyon?
ils/elles	vont	Ils vont à la plage. = They're going to the beach.

Bonus use — Near future: aller + infinitive = going to do something

Je vais manger. = I'm going to eat.
Tu vas regarder le match ? = Are you going to watch the game?
Nous allons partir bientôt. = We're going to leave soon.
Elles vont déménager en septembre. = They're going to move in September.

Negative near future: ne wraps around the conjugated aller, not the infinitive: Je ne vais pas partir. = I'm not going to leave.

VENIR — To Come

Pronoun	Form	Example
je	viens	Je viens tout de suite. = I'm coming right away.
tu	viens	Tu viens avec moi ? = Are you coming with me?
il/elle	vient	Il vient de Lyon. = He comes from Lyon.
nous	venons	Nous venons à pied. = We're coming on foot.
vous	venez	Vous venez ce soir ? = Are you coming tonight?
ils/elles	viennent	Ils viennent en voiture. = They're coming by car.

Note: venir + de + infinitive = to have just done something. This gets its own lesson on Day 10!

Je viens de manger. = I just ate.
Elle vient d'arriver. = She just arrived.

POUVOIR — To Be Able To / Can

Pronoun	Form	Example
je	peux	Je peux t'aider. = I can help you.
tu	peux	Tu peux répéter ? = Can you repeat?
il/elle	peut	Elle peut venir demain. = She can come tomorrow.
nous	pouvons	Nous pouvons essayer. = We can try.
vous	pouvez	Vous pouvez parler plus lentement ? = Can you speak more slowly?
ils/elles	peuvent	Ils peuvent rester. = They can stay.

POUVOIR is always followed by an infinitive. It cannot stand alone.

Est-ce que je peux entrer ? = May I come in?
Nous ne pouvons pas venir samedi. = We can't come on Saturday.

Mini-dialogue — planning a weekend trip:

Sami : Tu viens avec nous ce week-end ? (Are you coming with us this weekend?)
Nora : Je ne sais pas encore, je peux te dire demain ? (I don't know yet, can I tell you tomorrow?)
Sami : Bien sûr ! On va à la montagne, ça va être super. (Of course! We're going to the mountains, it's going to be great.)
Nora : Génial, je viens de finir mon travail, donc je devrais pouvoir venir. (Great, I just finished my work, so I should be able to come.)

🦝 Remy's memory trick: "Aller in the present looks nothing like itself: vais, vas, va... Think of it as a completely new word family! And for pouvoir: je peux, tu peux are identical twins — but il peut sneaks in with a 't'. Classic troublemaker."

Common Mistakes

❌ Je vais à manger. → ✅ Je vais manger. — the near future is aller + infinitive, with no "à" in between; "à" is only used before a place (je vais à Paris).
❌ Il vais au travail. → ✅ Il va au travail. — mixing up the je and il/elle forms of aller; each pronoun has its own unique irregular form here.
❌ Je peux à aider. → ✅ Je peux aider. — pouvoir is directly followed by the infinitive, no preposition needed.
❌ Elle vient de Paris demain. (meaning "she's coming from Paris tomorrow" but confused with the recent-past idiom) → be careful: venir de + place = to come from somewhere; venir de + infinitive = to have just done something. Context tells you which.

Recap

ALLER (vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont) is wildly irregular and must be memorized as a set.
Aller + infinitive expresses the near future — one of the most useful structures at A2.
VENIR has a vowel shift: vien- in je/tu/il/ils, ven- in nous/vous.
POUVOIR always needs an infinitive attached — it never stands alone.

🎯 Today's challenge

Write a mini-paragraph (3–4 sentences) about your plans for tomorrow using aller + infinitive for the near future. Example: Demain, je vais travailler. Je vais aussi aller au gym. Le soir, mes amis viennent chez moi.

⭐ Key takeaways

ALLER is completely irregular — vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont. Memorize them as a group.
Aller + infinitive is your go-to structure for near-future plans on both the exam and in real life.
VENIR has a vowel shift: vien- in singular/ils, ven- in nous/vous.
POUVOIR always pairs with an infinitive and cannot stand alone.

Irregular Verbs: ALLER, VENIR, POUVOIR