Compras y Recados - Shopping and Errands
Voy a Comprar - Talking About Plans
You can describe your routine, your tastes, and what's right in front of you. Now you need to talk about what hasn't happened yet — what you're going to do later today, tomorrow, this weekend, next week. Spanish has a full future tense (which lands in Module 12), but the everyday way to say "I'm going to do X" is much easier: it's three words long, and you only need one new verb to use it.
The Verb Ir — Irregular but Tiny
Ir means "to go". It's irregular — none of its forms look like the infinitive — but it's also short, common, and worth memorising as a single block:
| Pronoun | Form | Pronounced |
|---|---|---|
| yo | voy | boy |
| tú | vas | bahs |
| él / ella / usted | va | bah |
| nosotros / nosotras | vamos | BAH-mos |
| vosotros / vosotras | vais | bahis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | van | bahn |
A few patterns to lock in:
- All six forms start with v-, even though the infinitive is ir. That's the irregularity — you just have to learn it.
- Vamos does double duty as "we go" and "let's go". Vamos a la playa can mean either "we're going to the beach" or "let's go to the beach" — context decides.
- Vais is the Spain-only vosotros form. It looks short, but the stress lands on the a — bahis, two syllables.
Try a few real sentences with ir on its own first, just to mean "go somewhere":
- Voy al supermercado. – I'm going to the supermarket.
- ¿Vas a la farmacia? – Are you going to the pharmacy?
- Vamos al parque los domingos. – We go to the park on Sundays.
Note al = a + el. Voy a el supermercado is wrong; it's always al supermercado, al banco, al parque. With feminine nouns there's no contraction: a la farmacia, a la tienda.
The Near Future: Ir + A + Infinitivo
Now the magic. Stick a plus a verb in its infinitive form (the -ar, -er or -ir form, unchanged) onto any conjugated ir, and you've got "going to do X":
| Conjugated ir | + a + | Infinitive | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voy | a | comprar pan | I'm going to buy bread. |
| Vas | a | estudiar | You're going to study. |
| Va | a | llegar tarde | He / she's going to be late. |
| Vamos | a | cenar fuera | We're going to eat out. |
| Vais | a | viajar | You all are going to travel. |
| Van | a | salir | They're going to go out. |
This is the formula you'll use a hundred times a day. It's the natural Spanish equivalent of English "I'm going to + verb" or "I'll + verb" when the action is happening soon:
- Mañana voy a comprar regalos para mi familia. – Tomorrow I'm going to buy gifts for my family.
- Esta tarde vamos a hacer la compra. – This afternoon we're going to do the food shop.
- ¿Vas a llamar a Pablo? – Are you going to call Pablo?
Three things to lock in:
- The a never changes. It's a fixed link.
- The verb after a stays in the infinitive — never conjugated.
- To negate, put no before the conjugated ir: no voy a salir esta noche.
When? — Time Markers
The near future works for anything from "in five minutes" to "next year". The time marker tells your listener how soon. Some you already know (mañana, los sábados); these are the new ones to add:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ahora | now |
| ahora mismo | right now |
| dentro de un rato | in a little while |
| luego | later |
| esta tarde | this afternoon |
| esta noche | tonight |
| mañana | tomorrow |
| pasado mañana | the day after tomorrow |
| este finde | this weekend |
| la próxima semana | next week |
| el próximo mes | next month |
| el año que viene | next year |
Position is flexible. You can put the time marker at the start of the sentence or at the end:
- Mañana voy a llamar al médico.
- Voy a llamar al médico mañana.
Both are correct. Spaniards lean slightly toward putting the time marker first when it's the new information ("tomorrow!"), and at the end when the action is the focus.
Pronoun Position Inside the Near Future
Remember from Lesson 2: when you have a verb followed by an infinitive, direct-object pronouns can sit in either of two places. The same rule applies here:
- Lo voy a comprar mañana. OR Voy a comprarlo mañana. – I'm going to buy it tomorrow.
- No la vamos a llamar. OR No vamos a llamarla. – We're not going to call her.
Both are correct. Pick whichever feels natural — Spaniards switch between both several times a sentence.
A small Castilian note on pronunciation: almorzar ("to have lunch") carries the theta on the z — al-mor-THAR. So vamos a almorzar in Madrid sounds BAH-mos a al-mor-THAR.
Practice
Words to Remember
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ir | to go |
| voy / vas / va | I go / you go / he-she goes |
| vamos / vais / van | we go / you all go / they go |
| ahora | now |
| ahora mismo | right now |
| luego | later |
| dentro de un rato | in a little while |
| esta tarde | this afternoon |
| esta noche | tonight |
| mañana | tomorrow |
| pasado mañana | the day after tomorrow |
| este finde | this weekend |
| la próxima semana | next week |
| hacer la compra | to do the food shop |
| hacer recados | to run errands |
| llegar tarde | to be late |
Conversation
Morning plans
Diego: ¿Qué vas a hacer hoy? What are you going to do today?
Carmen: Voy a hacer la compra. I'm going to do the food shop.
Diego: Yo voy contigo. I'll go with you.
This afternoon
Carmen: ¿Vas a estudiar esta tarde? Are you going to study this afternoon?
Diego: Sí, un par de horas. Luego voy a salir. Yes, a couple of hours. Then I'm going out.
Carmen: ¿Adónde vais? Where are you all going?
Weekend plans
Diego: Este finde vamos a ir al cine. This weekend we're going to the cinema.
Carmen: ¡Qué bien! La próxima semana voy yo. Nice! Next week I'll go.
Diego: Vale, vamos juntos. OK, let's go together.
Practice
Recall
Type the Spanish for each English meaning. Leave a row blank if you draw a blank — that counts as a miss.
Practice
Translation Exercise
Translate each English sentence into Spanish.
Cultural Note
Spanish daily life runs on small, frequent errands rather than one big weekly haul. Hacer la compra ("doing the food shop") in a Spanish city often means three or four short stops in one day — the bakery for fresh bread, the frutería for tomatoes, the carnicería for ham, the corner Mercadona for everything else. Big once-a-week stocking trips to a hypermarket exist, but they're more common in suburbs and families with cars. In a city flat, the fridge is small and the shops are close, so you go more often and buy less.
That rhythm shapes how Spaniards talk about the near future. Voy a hacer la compra rarely means "I'm going to drive forty minutes and spend an hour with a trolley." It usually means "I'm going to walk five minutes and pick up tomorrow's lunch." Voy a la farmacia means "I'm popping in for ten minutes." When somebody says luego voy a por el pan, they're talking about the next twenty minutes, not later tonight. The phrase ir a por is a Spain-specific construction — Latin America says ir por — and it's everywhere: voy a por agua, voy a por las llaves, voy a por un café.