Spanish/Lessons/¿Adónde vas a ir?

Lesson 8 &mdash; ¿Adónde vas a ir?



Dialogue

 * Raúl: Hola Sofía. La semana que viene voy a ir a Italia.
 * Sofía: ¿Cómo vas a ir? ¿En tren?
 * Raúl: No. Odio los trenes, son muy ruidosos.
 * Sofía: Claro. Prefiero los aviones también.
 * Raúl: Usualmente voy a Irlanda, pero tengo un boleto para Italia.


 * Sofía: Así que, ¿vas a comprar otro boleto?
 * Raúl: No, Italia también está bien. Puedo tomar el sol y experimentar la cultura nativa.
 * Sofía: ¿Cuánto tiempo vas a pasar allí?
 * Raúl: Dos semanas. Me gustaría pasar un mes, pero no puedo tomarme un mes libre.
 * Sofía: Entiendo. ¡Hasta luego!

Translation (wait until the end of the lesson).

The Simple Future tense
Expressing what you're going to do in the future is simple in Spanish, and the same as in English. You use this construction: [Ir] a [infinitive] Let's look at this more closely. First, you must conjugate the (sadly irregular) verb ir (meaning "to go"), followed by a (meaning "to"). Then you have the infinitive of the verb you are going to do. So, voy a comer means "I'm going to eat". It's as simple as that!

Ir is conjugated thus:


 * Notes
 * For reflexive verbs, you have two options for where to put the reflexive pronoun. You can either have it before ir (me voy a bañar, meaning "I'm going to have a bath") or as a suffix of the infinitive (voy a bañarme, meaning "I'm going to have a bath"). It doesn't matter which you choose.


 * Examples
 * Voy a cenar a las ocho
 * I'm going to have dinner at 8:00.
 * ¿Vas a jugar al fútbol con Paulo?
 * Are you going to play football with Paulo?
 * Va a ducharse por la tarde.
 * She's going to have a shower in the evening.
 * Vamos a ir a Francia; nos vamos a relajar.
 * We're going to go to France; We're going to relax.
 * Por la noche, van a jugar al ajedrez.
 * At night, they're going to play chess.

Go to the exercises.

In the future...
Now that we know how to express future actions, it'd be great to be able to say when we're going to do them. Here are a few key expressions for saying when something is going to happen.
 * Notes


 * Notice viene in some of the phrases. This is from the E=>IE stem-changing verb venir, meaning "to come". So, literally, these phrases mean "the coming week" (la semana que viene) or "the coming year" (el año que viene).


 * You may have already noticed that the word mañana translates as both tomorrow and morning. Mañana por la mañana means "tomorrow morning". In the same vein, mañana por la tarde means "tomorrow afternoon" and mañana por la noche means "tomorrow night".


 * Examples


 * Mañana por la tarde, voy a jugar al tenis.
 * Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to play tennis.
 * El año que viene, vamos a ir a Irlanda.
 * Next year, we're going to go to Ireland.
 * En el futuro, me gustaría vivir en el campo.
 * In the future, I would like to live in the countryside.
 * ¿Vas a tener ocho años el mes que viene?
 * Are you going to be eight years-old next month?
 * ¿Vamos a cenar a las siete y media la semana próxima?
 * Are we going to have dinner at 7:30 next week?
 * Las mujeres van a vivir en un piso en noviembre.
 * The women are going to live in a flat in November.

Go to the exercises.

Holidays
Grab your swimming trunks: you're off to the south coast of Spain!

Journey
So, when, where and how are you going to go? Look at the following phrase, explained below. El año próximo, voy a ir a España en avión. This is made up of various parts:
 * Firstly, we have the time expression.
 * Then, ir ("to go") in the simple future tense.
 * Then a España, meaning "to Spain" - the location.
 * Then en avión, meaning by aeroplane. Literally, this means "in aeroplane", as en means "in".

You have all of the vocabulary here, except for the modes of transport, some of which are below.


 * Examples
 * ¿Vas a ir a Alemania en coche?
 * Are you going to go to Germany by car?
 * ¿Cómo vamos a ir a Francia? ¿En autocar?
 * How are we going to go to France? By coach?
 * Normalmente, voy en avión, pero el mes que viene, voy a ir en tren.
 * Normally, I go by aeroplane, but next month, I'm going to go by train.
 * Van a ir a Rusia en avión.
 * They're going to go to Russia by plane.

Go to the exercises.

For how long?
To say how long you're going to spend somewhere (or doing something), you use the verb pasar (meaning "to spend", as in time). It is a perfectly regular verb (paso, pasas, pasa, pasamos, pasáis, pasan). You would then follow it by a timespan (pasamos dos semanas en Irlanda means "we spend two weeks in Ireland").

To ask how long someone else is going to spend somewhere, you use cuánto tiempo ("how much time") followed by pasar. ¿Cuánto tiempo van a pasar en el Reino Unido? means "How long are they going to spend in the UK?".


 * Examples
 * Vais a pasar un mes en Méjico.
 * You're all going to spend a month in Mexico.
 * Normalmente, ¿cuánto tiempo pasas en Canadá?
 * Normally, how much time do you spend in Canada?
 * ¿Dónde voy a pasar el mes que viene? ¿En Nueva Zelanda?
 * Where am I going to spend the next month? New Zealand?

Go to the exercises.

Accommodation
To say "to stay" in Spanish, you use the reflexive verb alojarse, which is regular (me alojo, te alojas, se aloja, nos alojamos, os alojáis, se alojan). Then, you use en (meaning "in"), then the type of accommodation, as shown in the table below.

However, if you're already in Spain, how do you ask for accommodation? Below are a few useful phrases for asking for accommodation...


 * ¿Tiene cuartos libres? (formal, if you don't know the person you are talking to. Otherwise, it's "¿Tienes...?")
 * Do you have any free rooms?
 * ¿Cuánto cobra por noche?
 * How much does it cost per night?
 * ¿Puedes recomendarme un hotel barato?
 * Can you recommend a cheap hotel?
 * ¿Se puede fumar en el cuarto?
 * Can you smoke in the room?


 * Notes
 * A "camp site" is un cámping (remember the accent), "to go camping" is ir de cámping and "a tent" is una tienda.
 * When in plural, habitación loses the accent (una habitación, dos habitaciones).


 * Examples
 * El año que viene, vamos a ir de cámping a Francia.
 * Next year, we're going to go camping in France.
 * La semana próxima, voy a pasar un día en un albergue juvenil.
 * Next week, I'm going to spend a day in a youth hostel.
 * Normalmente, cuando van a España, se alojan en un chalet, pero el año próximo, van a alojarse en un hotel.
 * Normally, when they go to Spain, they stay in a villa, but next year, they're going to stay in a hotel.
 * ¿Tiene habitaciones dobles libres?
 * Do you have any free double rooms?
 * ¿Cuánto cobra por noche en un habitación individual? ¿Se puede fumar allí?
 * How much does a single room cost per night? Are you allowed to smoke there?
 * ¿Puedes recomendarme un hotel barato que tiene habitaciones familares libres?
 * Can you recommend a cheap hotel that has free family rooms?

Go to the exercises.

Activities
Right. So you've arrived and unpacked. What now? How are you going to spend your time? Obviously, you could jugar al fútbol ("play football") or beber vino ("drink wine"), but clearly there are more activities than just these...

What about more general things? Why do you want to go there? What do you want to get out of the trip? To say "in order to", you use para (meaning "for"), followed by the infinitive.


 * Notes
 * There are quite a few new verbs here. Luckily, most are regular...
 * Sacar is regular (saco, sacas, saca, sacamos, sacáis, sacan).
 * Tomar is regular (tomo, tomas, toma, tomamos, tomáis, toman).
 * Irse is explained in more detail below.
 * Bailar is regular (bailo, bailas, baila, bailamos, bailáis, bailan).
 * Nadar is regular (nado, nadas, nada, nadamos, nadáis, nadan).
 * Experimentar is regular (experimento, experimentas, experimenta, experimentamos, experimentáis, experimentan).
 * Probar is an O=>UE stem-changing verb (pruebo, pruebas, prueba, probamos, probáis, prueban).
 * Aprender is regular (aprendo, aprendes, aprende, aprendemos, aprendéis, aprenden).
 * Irse is quite complicated. It's the same ir as described above (voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van), but the se means that it's reflexive too, so it uses the reflexive pronouns learnt last lesson. Thus, it's conjugated: me voy, te vas, se va, nos vamos, os vais, se van.
 * With the nouns mentioned here, most of the genders are obvious. However, watch out for idioma and foto, since they have the opposite genders to what you would expect. Idioma is masculine and Foto is feminine.
 * Obviously, nativo and diferente are adjectives. Another useful adjective to use in these phrases is nuevo, meaning "new".


 * Examples
 * El mes próximo, voy a ir a Ibiza para irme de juerga.
 * Next month, I'm going to go to Ibiza to go clubbing.
 * Cuando esté en Francia, puedo relajarme - me encanta nadar y tomar el sol.
 * When in France, I can relax - I love swimming and sunbathing.
 * ¿Por qué te gustaría ir a España? ¿Para aprender el idioma?
 * Why would you like to go to Spain? To learn the language?
 * Van a ir a Grecia en noviembre. Les gusta probar comidas nuevas y experimentar culturas diferentes.
 * They're going to go to Greece in November. They like trying new foods and experiencing different cultures.
 * Cuando vamos a Inglaterra, nunca sacamos fotos buenas.
 * When we go to England, we never take good photos.
 * ¿Os gusta bailar e iros de juerga?
 * Do you all like dancing and going clubbing?

Go to the exercises.

Stem-changing Verbs
The second type of irregular verb is another stem-changing verb. This time, the e changes to ie in the "I", "you", "he/she/it" and "they" forms. An example (querer, meaning "to want") is written in the table below.


 * Other verbs that follow this pattern
 * entender ("to understand"): entiendo, entiendes, entiende, entendemos, entendéis, entienden.
 * empezar ("to start"): empiezo, empiezas, empieza, empezamos, empezáis, empiezan.
 * preferir ("to prefer"): prefiero, prefieres, prefiere, preferimos, preferís, prefieren.
 * pensar ("to think"): pienso, piensas, piensa, pensamos, pensáis, piensan.


 * Notes
 * Querer can be followed by the infinitive (quiero empezar means "I want to start").
 * Remember tener? Well, that is a stem changing verb too: tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen!
 * Pensar is normally followed by que, meaning "to think that".


 * Examples
 * Quiero almorzar a las dos menos cuarto.
 * I want to have lunch at 1:45.
 * Usualmente, vamos a Rusia en noviembre, pero Juan prefiere ir a España: quiere aprender el idioma.
 * Usually, we go to Russia en november, but Juan prefers going to Spain; he wants to learn the language.
 * Pasado mañana, vais a cenar en el hotel. ¿Entendéis?
 * The day after tomorrow, you're going to dine in the hotel. Do you all understand?
 * ''Cuando voy a Nueva Zelanda, quiero alojarme en un albergue juvenil, pero Santiago prefiere los chaletes.
 * When I go to New Zealand, I want to stay in a youth hostel, but Santiago prefers villas.
 * Entiendo que se puede fumar en las habitaciones individuales, ¿no?
 * I understand you can smoke in the single rooms, right?
 * ¿Piensas que las mujeres van a ser amables?
 * Do you think the women are going to be nice?

Go to the exercises.

Summary
In this lesson, you have learnt You should now do the exercise related to each section (found here), and translate the dialogue at the top before moving on to lesson 9...
 * How to form the simple future tense in Spanish (voy a comer; vais a almorzar; van a ir)
 * How to say various future time phrases (pasado mañana; mañana por la noche; en el futuro)
 * How to say when, where and how you're going on holiday (el mes que viene, vamos a ir a Irlanda en autocar)
 * How to say for how long you're going to stay (voy a pasar un mes; pasa una semana)
 * How to say what sort of accommodation you'll be in (un cámping; un albergue juvenil; voy a alojarme en una habitación familiar)
 * How to ask for accommodation (¿Tienes cuartos libres?; ¿Cuánto cobra por noche?)
 * How to say various holiday activities (me voy de juerga; bailan; probar comidas nuevas)
 * How to form E=>IE stem-changing verbs (quiero; entendemos; cierran)