In brief
- To go: to go; irregular verb, key forms go / went / gone.
- Present: go for all subjects, except goes for the third person singular.
- Preterite: went, invariable regardless of the subject.
- Past participle: gone, used for the present perfect and past perfect.
- Phrasal verbs: go on, go out, go off, go back, go through change meaning depending on the particle.
To go means “to go” and is among the most commonly used irregular verbs in English. It is used to express movement, a plan, or appears in many idiomatic expressions. This sheet details its conjugation in all tenses, sentence construction, and its main uses as a phrasal verb.
The key forms of the verb to go
To go is an irregular verb whose three base forms cannot be deduced by any rule: go (base form), went (preterite), gone (past participle). In the third person singular in the present tense, go becomes goes.
Conjugation in the present tense
| Subject | Present Simple | Present Continuous |
|---|---|---|
| I | go | am going |
| You | go | are going |
| He / She / It | goes | is going |
| We | go | are going |
| You (pl.) | go | are going |
| They | go | are going |
The present simple is used to talk about habits or general truths: I go to work every day. The present continuous describes an action in progress or a planned project: We are going to London tomorrow.
Conjugation in the past tense
| Tense | Formation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Preterite | went (invariable) | I went to the market yesterday. |
| Past Continuous | was/were + going | I was going home when it started raining. |
| Present Perfect | have/has + gone | She has gone to the doctor. |
| Present Perfect Continuous | have/has been + going | They have been going there for years. |
| Past Perfect | had + gone | They had gone home before I arrived. |
| Past Perfect Continuous | had been + going | He had been going to that gym for months. |
Went and gone are often confused. Went is used alone, without an auxiliary, for a completed action in the past: I went to Paris last year. Gone is never used alone: it always follows have, has, or had.
Conjugation in the future tense
| Tense | Formation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Future | will + go | They will go on vacation in July. |
| Future Continuous | will be + going | At noon, I will be going to the airport. |
| Future Perfect | will have + gone | By 10pm, she will have gone to bed. |
The near future going to, built with the verb to go itself, expresses an intention that has already been decided: I am going to call her tonight. The difference between this form and the future with will is covered in the sheet on the future in English.
Conditional
| Tense | Formation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present Conditional | would + go | I would go if I had time. |
| Past Conditional | would have + gone | She would have gone, but she was sick. |
Building a sentence with to go
In the affirmative, the structure remains direct: subject + conjugation of to go + complement. She went to the market yesterday.
In the negative form, the auxiliary do/does/did (or will in the future) precedes not, followed by the base form go: They did not go to the party.
In the interrogative form, the auxiliary is placed before the subject: Did she go to the cinema last night? With a question word: Where do you go on weekends?
To go as a phrasal verb
When combined with a particle, go changes meaning depending on the context. These combinations are among the most frequent phrasal verbs in everyday English.
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| go on | to continue, to happen | What’s going on here? |
| go out | to leave, to stop burning | The fire has gone out. |
| go off | to ring, to explode, to spoil | The alarm went off at 6 AM. |
| go back | to return | I need to go back to the office. |
| go through | to experience, to examine | She’s going through a tough time. |
| go ahead | to start, to proceed | If the project goes ahead, we’ll need more staff. |
| go up | to increase | Food prices are going up. |
| go by | to pass (time) | Four or five days went by. |
The meaning of a phrasal verb depends heavily on the context: go off can refer to an alarm ringing, a bomb exploding, or milk becoming unfit for consumption. The complete list of irregular verbs useful for building this type of structure can be found in the 220 irregular verbs in English.
Common expressions with to go
- Let’s go! → Let’s go!
- Go ahead. → Go ahead, please.
- To go the extra mile → to make extra efforts
- To go hand in hand → to go together
- To go with the flow → to follow the current, to adapt
Practice exercise
Check your knowledge of the conjugation of to go:
1. Every morning, she ___ to work by bike.
2. Last weekend, they ___ to the beach.
3. She has already ___ to the new restaurant three times.
4. Right now, he ___ to the store to buy some groceries.
5. They ___ home before I arrived.
6. “The alarm went off at 6 AM” means:
Your score
