"I have to go; my phone is ringing."

Translation: Je dois y aller, mon téléphone sonne.

[LSadun]

Why not je dois aller?

[mangedesfruits]

Because « aller » is always a transitive verb when it means to physically move somewhere, so it, therefore, always requires an object. Since objects for « aller » are introduced with « à », the object pronoun « y » is used to replace « à » plus a thing.

« Aller » in its intransitive form is used for the near future tense as an auxiliary verb like in English:

« Oui, maman, je vais faire mes devoirs une fois que je finis cet épisode ! »
“Yes, mom, Iʼm going to do my homework once I finish this episode!”

Itʼs worth noting that since « aller » is used for the near future tense, the sentence fragment “I will,” in English, can be expressed using the sentence « je vais » in French.

[TwoBeersPlease]

Great explanation. Thank you.

[choracavaco]

In French, you always go somewhere, *"je dois aller" is just incomplete.

[stupefaite]

je dois m'en aller mon telephone sonne

works as well

[jloncarevic]

What is wrong with "Il faut que j'aille"?

[Nathan173901]

The adverbial pronoun y is still needed here: il faut que j'y aille.

[Bekir978479]

This could have been without "y". Befor we did exercises without y.

[bebeyoung1]

what's wrong with 'phone'?

[Nathan173901]

It's correct in English, but the only correct version in French is téléphone.

[lisamich]

What about " je dois partir"?