SPANISH TIP OF THE DAY 2020-07-26
Today we review the verb “ir” which
is a highly irregular verb. It is unique in Spanish because it’s the only verb
that has no stem…remember that all other verbs in the infinitive, you drop the last
two letters, known as the ending, and what’s left is the stem. In the case of
IR, you have nothing left. So for ir (and its close cousin”irse”). you know the
indicative tense (present tense) of ir very well now: voy/vas/va/vamos/van. It can stand alone to say where are you going
(Adónde vas?)
voy a la piscina (I’m going to the
pool);
¿Vas a la tienda más tarde? (are
you going to the store later?) ¿
Adonde va mañana? Where is he going (to) tomortow. etc.
IR can also be used as a helping
verb to describe things that will happen in the future. As in other helping
verbs, it precedes the main verb. They helping verb is conjugated, the main
verb remains in the infinitive. One often adds the word “a” (“to/towards)
between the two verbs. For example:
Voy a renunciar mañana. (I will
resign tomorrow). ¿Vas a caminar dos millas conmigo? (Will you go walk 2 miles with me?). some call this the “poor
man’s” future tense. You don’t have to learn those pesky future endings if you
use IR instead.
In class, Vicky asked what is the
command form (i.e.) for the tú (2nd person, familiar) form? The
general rule is you take the 3rd person singular (in this case “va”)
and use it as the 2nd person familiar command. Unfortunately, ir is an
exception. instead of va. it is “ve”
Oh, and the difference between ir and
irse is that ir = to go and irse = to leave. Irse is used quite commonly and I will
bet it is the preferred form to say I'm leaving. e.g. “me voy”. or if you want
someone to leave = “vete”
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