Ir + a: the future tense you will actually use
Conjugate ir — voy, vas, va, vamos, van — add a, add an infinitive, and you have the future: voy a comer. This is what people say. The one-word future exists but is largely written or formal, so you can leave it until much later.
Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.
The forms
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | voy |
| tú | vas |
| usted / él / ella | va |
| nosotros / nosotras | vamos |
| ustedes / ellos / ellas | van |
Completely irregular — nothing about voy comes from ir. Learn it as a five-word list, which takes about a minute, and it pays for itself immediately.
Going somewhere
ir + a + place. The a is not optional.
- Voy a la tienda.
- ¿Vas al mercado? — a + el contracts to al, always.
- Vamos a Cusco en julio.
That contraction is one of only two in the language (a + el = al, de + el = del), so it is worth getting automatic.
Going to do something — the future
ir + a + infinitive. Same shape, but an infinitive instead of a place.
- Voy a comer. — I’m going to eat.
- ¿Qué vas a hacer? — What are you going to do?
- Vamos a estudiar mañana.
- No va a venir. — He isn’t going to come.
This covers nearly all future talk in speech. Spanish does have a one-word future — comeré, comerás — and you will meet it in writing, in news, and in a few fixed uses like speculation (serán las tres — it must be about three). In conversation it is much rarer than ir + a, which is why this lesson exists at A1 and that one does not.
You can also just use the plain present for something scheduled: mañana voy al mercado. Three ways to talk about tomorrow, and the one-word future is the least common of them.
Vamos: let’s
Vamos does double duty as “we go”, “we are going” and “let’s go”.
- Vamos. — Let’s go.
- Vamos a comer. — Either “we’re going to eat” or “let’s eat”. Context sorts it, and nobody minds the ambiguity.
- Vámonos. — Let’s get out of here. More urgent.
Reflexive: irse, to leave
Ir is about a destination; irse is about departure. Different verb in practice.
- Me voy. — I’m off.
- ¿Ya te vas? — You’re leaving already?
- Se fue. — She left.
Ya me voy is how you end a visit politely, and you will hear it constantly.
In Peru
Vamos viendo. Literally “we go seeing” — we’ll see, no commitment. This belongs to the same family of hedges as de repente meaning maybe and ahorita: keep the plan loose, keep the conversation comfortable.
¿Vamos? on its own is a complete invitation.
Ya vengo — I’ll be right back, using a different verb but the same present-for-future habit. The length of that “right back” varies.
No hay future tense in a taxi. ¿Me lleva a Miraflores? and voy a Barranco are the whole conversation — see Spanish for taking a taxi in Lima.
Practise
- ___ (yo) a la tienda.
- ¿Qué ___ (tú) a hacer mañana?
- ___ (nosotros) a estudiar juntos.
- Voy ___ mercado. — fill in the contraction.
- Ya me ___. — I’m off.
→ 1 Voy · 2 vas · 3 Vamos · 4 al · 5 voy.
Next
→ Gustar: the verb that works backwards
Topics The present
Voy a — the future people actually say
Ir plus a plus an infinitive, the contraction that is not optional, and the difference between voy and me voy.
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1“What are you going to do tomorrow?”
Answer
¿Qué vas a hacer mañana? — *Ir + a + infinitive*, and the *a* is not optional. What follows is always the plain infinitive, never a conjugated form.
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2*Voy ___ mercado.*
Answer
al — *A + el* contracts to *al*, always — one of only two contractions in the language, alongside *de + el = del*.
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3*___ (nosotros) a estudiar juntos.*
Answer
Vamos — *Vamos* — and it doubles as “let's”: *vamos a estudiar* is either “we're going to study” or “let's study”, and context sorts it out.
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4You are leaving a friend's house. “I'm off” is:
Answer
Me voy. — *Irse* is about departure, *ir* about a destination. *Ya me voy* is how you end a visit politely; a bare *voy* sounds unfinished.
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5*Ella no ___ a venir.*
Answer
va — *Va* — the usted / él / ella form. *Ir* is irregular throughout, so it is worth learning *voy, vas, va, vamos, van* as a five-word list.
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6A Peruvian friend answers your plan with *Vamos viendo*. That means:
Answer
we'll see — no commitment yet — *Vamos viendo* keeps the plan loose on purpose. It belongs to the same family of hedges as *de repente* and *ahorita*, and it is not a yes.
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7Which of these is NOT a normal way to talk about tomorrow?
Answer
Mañana estoy ir al mercado. — The first three all work — plain present, *ir + a*, and the one-word future, which is the rarest in speech. *Estoy ir* is not a construction.