Use of "aller" versus "se passer".

H. A.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Use of "aller" versus "se passer".

In the question...

Comment ________ tes vacances ?How are your holidays going?... I wrote "vont" instead of "se passent". Why is that unacceptable, given that you can say "Comment allez-vous?"? Can you only use "aller" with people to mean "go" in this sense?

Asked 3 weeks ago
CélineKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

Bonjour H,

In French, "aller" is used with people to ask how someone is doing:

Comment vas-tu ? / Comment allez-vous ? = How are you?

So, you don't use "aller" this way with events or things like "les vacances, la journée, le week-end, etc." Instead, you will use "se passer" which is the idiomatic way of asking how something is going (as long as it is not a person).

 

Comment se passe ta journée ? = How is your day going?

 

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

CécileKwiziq Native French Teacher

Bonjour Harry,

Just to add to what Céline said, as the lesson is about the verbs passer/se passer/se passer de, the quiz questions are testing you on those, so 'aller' wouldn't be accepted. 

I hope that helps!

H. A. asked:

Use of "aller" versus "se passer".

In the question...

Comment ________ tes vacances ?How are your holidays going?... I wrote "vont" instead of "se passent". Why is that unacceptable, given that you can say "Comment allez-vous?"? Can you only use "aller" with people to mean "go" in this sense?

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