{"id":13767,"date":"2020-09-30T16:49:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T20:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=13767"},"modified":"2020-10-01T12:02:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T16:02:40","slug":"spanish-power-verbs-ir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/spanish-power-verbs-ir\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Power Verbs – Ir"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you’re a beginner with any language, a great place to start is by learning so-called “power verbs.” These are the most important verbs that you use on a daily basis. It’s been a while since my last post about Spanish power verbs. You can go back and check out those posts if you missed them (necesitar<\/a>, querer<\/a>, gustar<\/a>, y poder<\/a>). I spent a few weeks studying Spanish power verbs in Puerto Vallarta<\/a> and it helped me gain the confidence I needed to order food, take a taxi, and do all the other basic essentials. Today we’ll take a look at another power verb – ir<\/em>, meaning “go.”<\/p>\n

Conjugation in Simple Present<\/h2>\n

The verb ir<\/em> is one of the most commonly used verbs in Spanish, so it’s definitely a useful one to practice! The problem is that it’s also highly irregular. I’m keeping it simple today by focusing on the simple present tense.<\/p>\n

\"Likes<\/a>

Voy a comer tacos de pescado en la playa!<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ll focus on using the verb to mean “going to” as that’s the form for using ir<\/em> as a power verb. By that, I mean you can combine it with the infinitive form of another verb to make a sentence (“I’m going to eat”, for example). Here’s the simple present conjugation for ir<\/em> meaning “going to”:<\/p>\n

Yo voy a
\nT\u00fa vas a
\nUsted va a
\n\u00c9l va a
\nElla va a
\nNosotros vamos a
\nUstedes van a
\nEllos\/ellas van a<\/div>
I’m going to
\nYou are going to (familiar)
\nYou are going to (formal)
\nHe is going to
\nShe is going to
\nWe are going to
\nYou are going to (plural)
\nThey are going to<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

As you can see, you add a<\/em> to the end of each one. This differentiates between “go” and “going to.” It will make more sense after you take a look at some examples. As usual, yo<\/em>,\u00a0t\u00fa<\/em>, and\u00a0nosotros<\/em> are all implied, so you don\u2019t really need to say the pronouns.<\/p>\n

For those learning Spanish to visit Spain, you can also add vosotros v\u00e1is a<\/em> (you all are going to, informal). I’ve been in Latin America for a few years now and no one uses that here so I won’t be using that particular form.<\/p>\n

Positive Statements<\/h2>\n

Like I said, this will make a lot more sense to you once you see some examples. Here are some positive statements using the verb ir<\/em> to mean “going to:”<\/p>\n

Vamos a visitar el museo este fin de semana.
\nWe are going to visit the museum this weekend.<\/h3>\n

Voy a aprender espa\u00f1ol en M\u00e9xico este a\u00f1o.
\nI’m going to learn Spanish in Mexico this year.<\/h3>\n

\u00c9l va a regresar a su casa despues de la fiesta.
\nHe is going to go home after the party.<\/h3>\n

Vas a jugar f\u00fatbol con tus amigos ma\u00f1ana.
\nYou’re going to play soccer with your friends tomorrow.<\/h3>\n

Ellos van a vivir en Colombia el pr\u00f3ximo a\u00f1o.
\nThey are going to live in Colombia next year.<\/h3>\n

Usted va a hacerlo esta noche.
\nYou’re going to do it tonight.<\/h3>\n

Ella va a cocinar el desayuno hoy.
\nShe is going to cook breakfast today.<\/h3>\n

Ustedes van a la escuela juntos.
\nYou are going to school together.<\/h3>\n

Ellas van a ver una pel\u00edcula en la tarde.
\nThey are going to see a movie in the afternoon.<\/h3>\n

Now it’s your turn! See if you can come up with a few positive statements using the power verb ir<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Voy a viajar a la Ciudad de M\u00e9xico.<\/p><\/div>\n

Negative Statements<\/h2>\n

To make negative statements, you simply need to add no<\/em> before the correct form of the power verb. Here are some examples to follow:<\/p>\n

No vas a leer el peri\u00f3dico esta ma\u00f1ana.
\nYou’re not going to read the newspaper this morning.<\/h3>\n

Ella no va a comprar esta computadora.
\nShe’s not going to buy this computer.<\/h3>\n

No vamos a comer carne este mes.
\nWe’re not going to eat meat this month.<\/h3>\n

Ellos no van a trabajar mucho hoy.
\nThey’re not going to work much today.<\/h3>\n

No voy a ir al mercado ma\u00f1ana.
\nI’m not going to go to the market tomorrow.<\/h3>\n

\u00c9l no va a tomar caf\u00e9 antes de la clase.
\nHe is not going to have coffee before class.<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

No voy a ir al mercado ma\u00f1ana.<\/p><\/div>\n

Asking Questions<\/h2>\n

As has been the case with all the power verbs we’ve looked at on the blog, asking yes\/no questions is muy facil<\/em> – just add the question marks to positive statements and change your intonation. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n

\u00bfVamos a la playa este s\u00e1bado?
\nAre we going to the beach this Saturday?<\/h3>\n

\u00bfUsted va a limpiar la casa hoy?
\nAre you going to clean the house today?<\/h3>\n

\u00bf\u00c9l va a hablar con su jefe este tarde?
\nIs he going to talk to his boss this afternoon?<\/h3>\n

\u00bfEllos van a escuchar m\u00fasica en la fiesta?
\nAre they going to listen to music at the party?<\/h3>\n

\u00bfVas a tocar la guitarra con tus amigos?
\nAre you going to play guitar with your friends?<\/h3>\n
\"Spanish<\/a>

S\u00ed, voy a tocar la guitarra con ellos<\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see, it’s pretty easy to ask yes\/no questions. It’s also very easy to answer them – just say S\u00ed<\/em> or No<\/em>. For the sake of practicing, though, why not answer with a complete sentence? Take that last question, for example. You could answer by saying “S\u00ed, voy a tocar la guitarra con ellos” or “No, no voy a tocar la guitarra con ellos.”<\/p>\n

Of course, we don’t always just ask yes\/no questions. Here a few other examples of questions using ir<\/em> as a power verb:<\/p>\n

\u00bfCu\u00e1ndo vas a llegar a la oficina?
\nWhen are you going to arrive at the office?<\/h3>\n

\u00bfD\u00f3nde vamos a comer esta noche?
\nWhere are we going to eat tonight?<\/h3>\n

\u00bfA qu\u00e9 hora van a jugar tenis ma\u00f1ana?
\nWhat time are they going to play tennis tomorrow?<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now can you see why ir<\/em> can be called a power verb in Spanish? For your last exercise, see if you can make a few different questions using it yourself. Even better – get out there and use them with a Spanish speaker to practice!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‍‍‍‍‍‍<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

When you’re a beginner with any language, a great place to start is by learning so-called “power verbs.” These are the most important verbs that you use on a daily basis. It’s been a while since my last post about Spanish power verbs. You can go back and check out those posts if you missed…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":12563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[472580,472579,536966,472659,536965],"class_list":["post-13767","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-beginner-spanish","tag-easy-spanish","tag-spanish-for-going-to","tag-spanish-power-verbs","tag-spanish-verb-ir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13767"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13772,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13767\/revisions\/13772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}