The future in Spanish: Verbal periphrasis IR + A + INFINITIVE

It's already January and we finally start the year 2023! 🥳

Have you already thought about your new projects for this year? What plans are you going to make? 

Are you going to practice a new sport?

Are you going to make an effort to socialize more? 

Or maybe you are going to come to Hispania, Spanish school for learn Spanish with us? 😊

If you have noticed, in the previous questions I have written «vas + a + infinitive». It is the verb go + to + infinitive and we use it a lot in Spanish to talk about the future.

Do you want to know more about this structure?

Well, stay with me and I'll tell you! 

At the end of the article you will know how to talk about your future plans and other things that you will learn by conjugating the same verb in another time.

Furthermore, you will practice with exercises that we will offer you.

Let's go there!

What is a verbal periphrasis?

We say that go + to + infinitive It is a verbal periphrasis.

And,what are verbal periphrases in Spanish?

It is a grammatical structure that is made up of a group of two verbs:

• The first verb is always conjugated in the personal form with a subject and a verbal tense. 
• The second is put in a non-personal form (infinitive, gerund or participle).

Sometimes between the verb and the non-personal form there may be another word such as a preposition or the word "that."

The periphrases have the function of giving information about the action. Sometimes they present us with an action that is just beginning, other times they talk about an action in process... 

They give the action a nuance in its meaning so that we understand where it is or so that we can see that it is an action that presents extra information.

Don't you understand me very well? Don't worry. 

Next, let's see the structure of the verbal periphrases with examples and you will see how you understand it easily.

Basic structure

As I said before, the structure of verbal periphrases It's always the same: 

A conjugated verb, plus another verb in a non-personal form. In between there may be nothing, there may be a preposition or the word "that" may appear.

There are three personal forms: infinitive, gerund or participle. 

The structure would then be the following:

Conjugated verb + Ø/preposition/que + infinitive/gerund/participle

Are you not clear with the non-personal forms of the verb? 🤔

Don't panic! I'll explain them to you right now.

Non-personal forms of the verb

As its name says, Non-personal forms of verbs are forms that do not have person marks.. 

That is, these non-personal forms cannot follow the traditional structure of Spanish: 

SUBJECT + VERB.

Because? Because he subject always agrees with a verb in the personal form.

For example, in the present tense of the verb walk, each person has their own verbal form:

I walkedor

you walkace

He/she/you walkto

We walkedmasters

You walkedyes

They/they/you walkedan

Do you see how each person has their own verbal form with a different ending?

We call that  personal forms of verbs. Thanks to them, in Spanish we can introduce an action without marking the subject or a timestamp obligatorily in the sentence, because the verb itself contains the information.

Example:

• Now I walkor through the park.

Since the verb ends in -o, we know that it is the first person singular (yo) in present tense. 

And, of course, the personal forms of verbs are used at all times of Spanish, not only in the present tense.

Now that you know this, can you get an idea of what the non-personal forms of verbs?

There are only three: the infinitive, the gerund and the participle. And they can never go alone with the subject, since these words have no endings and do not give information about the subject.

Let's look at them in more detail separately and now you will understand it 100%, I promise you. 😉

Infinitive

The infinitive is the base form of the unconjugated verb. There are only 3 conjugations that classify all verbs. We will find verbs that end in -AR such as I studiedA.R., -ER like the verbE.R., or in -GO how I driveGO.

Do you want examples of infinitives? Come on:

Sing, speak, command, drink, eat, see, go out, write, say, translate, etc.

This non-personal form of the verb would be like the proper noun of the verb itself, it is the form that we will find in the dictionary if we look for the meaning of the word.

Do you want to know some verbal periphrases with infinitive? 

Let's look at some!

• HAVE TO + INFINITIVE (expresses an obligation)

Example:

The exam is on Friday. This week I have to study a lot.

• BEGIN TO + INFINITIVE (expresses the beginning of an action or habit)

Example: 

This month I I start training to get strong.

• WANT + INFINITIVE (expresses the desire to do something)

Example: 

I want to buy a book to Lola.

These are just a few examples, there are many more: 

• Need + infinitive.
• There is that + infinitive.
• Power + infinitive
• Finish + infinitive.
• End of + infinitive.
• Etc.

As you can see, there are some that between the two verbs have a preposition, the word "that" or they have nothing.

All of them will give us important information about the action to better understand what the speaker means.

now you know of what kind is the verbal periphrasis ir + a + infinitive, belongs to this group, periphrasis with infinitive.  And its function, as we have mentioned before, is to give the stock a future value.

Isn't it wonderful to be able to discover so many things about the message we convey through the word? 

In Spanish, the verb is the boss of communication, but a boss who works a lot...

Gerund 

We continue to see more verbal periphrasis classes, now with a gerund.

The gerund It is a non-personal form of the verb that is often used to express a duration or process of an action.

The gerund is formed as follows:

• adding -ANDO to verbs that end in -AR.
• adding -GOING to verbs that end in -ER or -IR.

Examples of gerunds: 

AmI walk, beganI walk, dialogueI walk, I respondedgoing, movgoing, havegoing, livegoing, transmitgoing…

Could you tell us what the infinitive of these gerund verbs is? Surely so, right?

There are also irregular gerunds in the verbs that have two vowels together before the infinitive. Here we put the letter "y".

Examples:

believe – believeandendo

Run away – huandendo

Read – youandendo

Or some verbs that present a vowel change in e-i / o-u.

Examples:

Mandntir – miI understand

Morlaugh – mulaughing

dorrmir – dusleeping

Yesandntir – siI understand 

Do you know which periphrase is most used with a gerund?

It is BE + GERUND. Super well-known, right? 

Surely you have used it many times without even knowing that it was a verbal periphrasis. 

It is used to express actions in process (in present tense):

Example:

At this moment I'm studying Spanish.

Do you want to know more verbal periphrases with gerund?

Here are some:

• Follow + gerund.
• Finish + gerund.
• Go + gerund (there are more verbs with go, not only go + to + infinitive)
• Carry + gerund + amount of time.
• stay + gerund
• Etc.

Participle

The participleIt is another non-personal form of the verb. It is formed as follows:

• adding-ADOin verbs that end in -AR.
• adding-GONEin verbs that end in -ER or -IR.

Examples of participles:

Spoken, finished, kissed, stopped, read, built, replaced...

This non-personal form has many irregular forms. Here I present to you theirregular participlesmost important:

See – seen

Break – broken

Write – written

fry – fried

Die – dead

Do – done

say – said

Put- put

Cover- covered

Do- done

Open – open

Etc.

¿Examples of verbal periphrasiswith participle?

There they go!

• CARRY + PARTICIPLE(expresses accumulated amount of something)

Example:

I have to study 20 topics for the exam. At the momentI have read 10 themes.

• STAY + PARTICIPLE(final consequence after an action)

Example:

After the door slams, the doorit was closed.

Othersverbal periphrases with participleare:

• Estar + participle.
• Andar + participle.
• Have + participle.
• Stay + participle.
• Follow + participle.
• Etc.

Go + a + infinitive: future periphrasis

After seeing the differenttypes of verbal periphrases with examplesFinally it's time to talk aboutgo + to + infinitive. 

First of all, do you remember what theconjugation of the verb to go in present? Let's refresh it!

Person	GO
I	GO
You	VAS
He/She/You	GOES
We	COME ON
You	VAIS
They/Them/You	VAN

The form of the verb goit's irregularin the present and in almost all tenses of the past and the subjunctive mood.

The imperative of the verb ir is also irregular:you go, you go, you go, you go.

Even thegerund of the verb to gois irregular:going.

And theparticiple? This is regular. We simply change the infinitivegoby the regular form "gone."

The verb ir in the simple future is also not irregular:I will go, you will go, he will go...

Go to + infinitive in present

Now that you know what averbal periphrasisand we have remembered the verb ir conjugatedin present, we can now talk aboutfuture in spanish.

Let's first look at the morphology of this verbal periphrasis.

Conjugation

We simply mustconjugate the verb ir in the present, add the preposition "a" and the infinitives.

I put youexampleswith each person and different infinitives so you can see it better:

Person	GO	INFINITIVES
I	I'm going to	buy
You	you are going to	rent
He/She/You	is going to	sleep
We	let's go	eat
You	are you going to	read
They/Them/You	they are going to	write

Do you see it? It is very easy to combine. 😊

In the case of thereflexive infinitivesThere are some important changes.

The pronoun can be put in front of the verbgoor behind the infinitive and attached to it.

Let's see it with examples of the verbwash:

• This afternoonmeI'm going to wash.

• This afternoon I'm going to washme.

Both options are equally correct. 😉

What does it express? Safe plans for the future

With theperiphrasis ir + a + infinitive we can express secure plans for the future. 

That is, things that we are sure or almost sure that we are going to do.

Furthermore, these actions are usually of a future close to present.

To talk about near future In Spanish we have some wonderful keywords that you have to learn. They are the following:

• Tomorrow / The day after tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm going to have class at 4:00 p.m.

The day after tomorrow I'm going to visit to my grandmother.

• this afternoon / tonight / This month / This weekend…

this afternoon I'm going for a walk through the center.

tonight I'm going out partying with my friends.

This weekend I'm going to go to the mountains for hiking.

• next week / next week / next year / next year / Next Monday…

next week I'm going to get up early more.

next monday I'm going to start in my new job.

• Near future months

Starting February I'm going to do more sport.

In March I'm going to celebrate my birthday

• Within + amount of time / In + amount of time

In two hours I'm going to finish my classes.

in three days I'm going to travel to London.

These are some of the most common keywords to express planning plans. future with go + to + infinitive. 

Before moving forward, I would like to stop at a few important considerations that will help you:

1) The words "next" and "coming" have the same meaning. 

For example, it is the same to say "next week" as "next week."

2) We can put the infinitive "go" in the periphrasisgo to + infinitive. In this way we will repeat the verb ir twice. Example:

This weekI'm going to goto a museum.

3)The key words that go with the demonstrative "this/this" can be used to talk about the future and also to talk about the past with the past perfect. Example:

• TonightI'm going to sleep soon.

(It is now 2:00 p.m. – near future)

• This morningI have gone to work. 

(It is now 7:00 p.m. – near past)

shape activity

What do you think if we move on to practice?

In this article we are going to do several verbal periphrasis exercisesgo + to + infinitive.

For now, let's practice the form of periphrasisgo + to + infinitivein presentwith the following activity:

You have the solutions in the exercise itself. 

Go + a + infinitive in the past imperfect

Do you know that periphrasisgo + to + infinitiveis also combinedin imperfect tense? Although in this case the use is different.

Let's see it in detail. 😉

Conjugation

Before we have seen the verb ir conjugated in the present. 

Now we are going to conjugate the verb ir in the past tense. Specifically, theimperfect tense of the verb ir.

It would be like this:

Person	Imperfect Past
I	was going
You	you were going
He/She/You	was going
We	we were going
You	you were going
They/Them/You	they were going

The shape was going from the verb to goit's irregular. 

Remember that the past imperfect only has3 irregular verbs: be,goand see.

So,How is periphrasis formed?go + a + infinitivein imperfect tense?

Simply combining theverb ir in imperfect tense, adding the preposition "a" and the infinitives.

Do we see it with examples? Of course!

Person	IR past imperfect	Infinitives
I	was going to	go out
You	you were going to	ask
He/She/You	was going to	eat
We	we were going to	run
You	you were going to	call
They/Them/You	were going to	to answer

Now that you know the way, it's time to learn how to use it. 🙌

What does it express? Change of plans or plans that are not fulfilled

Go + to + infinitivein the imperfect tense it is used to expresschange of plans or plans that are not fulfilled.

That is to say: "I had planned to do something, but in the end I didn't do it or I changed the action."

With examples it is always easier:

• YesterdayI was going to go to the store but in the end I got lazy and stayed home.

• This afternoonI was going to runbut I have decided that I am finally going to swim.

• This morningI was going to workat home but I wanted to see my colleagues and then I changed my mind and went to the office.

• TomorrowI was going to visitto José, but he told me that he will not be at his house so I will not go.

The interesting thing about this use is that it can be used both forpast actions as well as future actions. 

If you notice, in examples 1 and 2 the temporality is in the past. 

But in examples 2 and 4 we talk about near future plans.

shape activity

It's time to practice go + to + infinitive in imperfect tense.

In the following exercise you must drag the options and put them in the appropriate space. 

You have the solution in the same exercise.

Activities to practice contrast 

Finally I leave you one last exercise.

 Here we mix Go + to + infinitive in present and past imperfect in a multiple response exercise. Each sentence has only one correct option. 

Luck!

Did you find it difficult? Surely not!

I think this article has been very interesting to understand well. how to use verbal periphrasis go + to + infinitive in present and past imperfect.

It's something we use in Spanish constantly and now you can say it well. 

It's a big step for speak like a real native!

In this article we have also reviewed the verb go and its conjugation and we have seen periphrasis verbal of different types.

Would you like to do more verbal periphrasis exercises and learn them all? 

Then I encourage you to come to our face-to-face Spanish courses in Hispania, Spanish school.

Here you will learn Spanish with native and expert teachers in our language, in a happy atmosphere and pleasant.

If you prefer to study from home, you can also sign up for our online Spanish classes.

Now that you know how to talk about the future, tell me:

What are your New Year's resolutions? What new things are you going to do this year 2023?

Tell me in comments! 😉

See you soon!

Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school 

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