"Y" in this sentence

Question

In the line: "je vais y aller maintenant" why is the "y" included? I thought near future was just aller + infinitive. This also does not seem to be following the rules for "y"as an adverbial pronoun. Thanks!

Céline Pickard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Claudia,
Maarten is correct: "The ‘ y ‘ is necessary because in French, with rare exceptions, the verb ‘ aller ‘ in the sense of ‘ going somewhere ‘ requires a/the destination ( somewhere ) to be specified."
In this context, when no specific destination has been previously mentioned, informal expressions such as "j'y vais / je vais y aller maintenant/de ce pas" refer to the English expressions "I'm off/I'm going now".
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Claudia,

The ‘ y ‘ is necessary because in French, with rare exceptions, the verb ‘ aller ‘ in the sense of ‘ going somewhere ‘ requires a/the destination ( somewhere ) to be specified. ‘ y ‘ refers to a known destination ( in context - in this script, I would interpret this sentence as ' (I am going) to go there now ', rather than just ' I am going to go now ' as it is written).

Although it is not specifically mentioned in the attached lesson, the position of adverbial pronouns ‘ y ‘ or ‘ en ‘ in relation to the verb they qualify is the same as for the object pronouns - they come before the verb.

This also applies when the qualified verb is in infinitive form as in the future proche construction in this sentence - the adverbial pronoun ‘ y ‘ qualifies the infinitive ‘ aller ‘, so must come directly before it.

Position of French Object Pronouns - with infinitives

Y = There (French Adverbial Pronouns)