J’ai allé has been on my radar for a few months now. My first hint that J’ai alle was a nationwide problem came in the summer of 2025. It happened when I heard someone who should know better say J’ai allé. I heard two people talking and one of them had one French speaking parent.

Let me just zoom in on this for anyone who is not sure what that means. It means that they didn’t just learn French out of a textbook. They are partially French and  had one parent speaking French to them at home 24 hours a day.

So if someone like this can say J’ai allé, then is there any hope for the rest of us anglophones?

Then a few months passed by and I thought I heard a professor use something that sort of …no it’s not possible. I didn’t really hear that. It’s really not possible.

Then I started doing my practicum in a French immersion classroom. The great thing about this class is that they are really good at speaking French. They speak French during class. They speak French in the hallway. They speak French when the teacher is out of earshot. They speak French when the teacher is away. They are really good at speaking French. But they kept saying J’ai allé.

So one day I decided to do a lesson on Vandertramp Verbs to remind them that for aller they need to use être instead of avoir.

I started working on it on November 12th, 2025 and tried it with these third graders for the first time on November 13th, 2025.

Since teaching Vandertramp verbs may be a little daunting for 3rd graders, I decided to use a bit of gamification and learning through play to keep them interested.

They loved it, and it allowed them to be aware of the problem and pay attention to what they’re saying

The next day, (November 13th, a student came and asked me if we could play the game again.)
I said that we could in the afternoon. When the afternoon, was drawing near, he came and reminded me.

When he asked me to do it again, I knew that was a good sign that they had liked the game.

So, I went and added a few more things

1)     A thorough revision of just Etre + allee (instead of all Vandertramp verbs) since that is the problem that inspired the site in the first place.

2)     Divided all the Vandertramp verbs into smaller chunks to practice. So now there is a menu for Dr, Mrs., Van, Der, and Tramp so teachers can practice the verbs in smaller chunks with their students

For teachers looking for a way to remind students to use Je suis allée, but in a fun way, vandertrampgames.com can help.

How to use vandertrampverbs.com :

1. Turn on your projector and navigate to the site https://vandertrampverbs.com. 
2. Take two desks and put them at the front of the classroom facing each other like Family feud. Ask who wants to play.
3. Put one student behind one desk and another student behind the other.
4. Then they have to smash an imaginary buzzer when they know the answer.
5. To make it feel even more like a gameshow, replace the words Joeur 1 and Joeur 2 with the names of the actual students.
6. Whenever a student wins, a big burst of confetti will flash up on the screen.

For older students who can handle more than just Je suis allée, you can use this resource to review all the Vandertramp verbs in a fun way over several months.

Enjoy Vandertramp verbs and I hope your students will have as much fun as mine did!

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