Conjugation of the Verb Ir in Spanish

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Julio Cesar Martinez – Spanish Tutor. “Conjugation of the Verb Ir in Spanish.” Lingua Linkup, 30 Jan. 2022, lingualinkup.com/ir-conjugation.

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Julio Cesar Martinez – Spanish Tutor. (2022, January 30). Conjugation of the Verb Ir in Spanish. Lingua Linkup. https://lingualinkup.com/ir-conjugation/

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Julio Cesar Martinez – Spanish Tutor. “Conjugation of the Verb Ir in Spanish.” Lingua Linkup, January 30, 2022. https://lingualinkup.com/ir-conjugation/.

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The verb ‘ir’ is one of the most used verbs in the Spanish language, we use it mainly to talk about moving something or ourselves to a place. Ir is often confused with the verb Venir, which also denotes movement, but with a different meaning. For example: ‘Voy a la fiesta’’ (I go to the party) in this case, this verb means that we move ourselves to a party. This verb it’s also used as an auxiliary verb to build the near future, as it happens in English.

Near future is built using the verb Ir in [present tense + a + the verb in infinitive], similar to English. An example of this is the next sentence:

Voy a comer pizza más tarde – I’m going to eat pizza later.

This verb is mainly used in many expressions in Spanish language, you will know some of them in a bit.

Learning Tips!

Before you continue reading, don’t forget the following statements.

• ‘’You’’ is a pronoun which has different meanings. However, in Spanish we have 3 important pronouns: tú, usted, ustedes. ‘’Tú’’ is used when you have confidence with the person you are talking to, ‘’usted’’ is more formal and ‘’ustedes’’ is used when talking to more than one person.

• In Spanish, we have unspoken subjects so it is not needed to use a pronoun every time as we do in English.

• We use written accents in Spanish, be careful or you will have miscommunication problems in your writing.

• ‘’Ir’’ is usually used before the preposition.

• This is one of the most irregular verbs in Spanish.

• Remember: a + el = al

Read the following examples:

• Yo voy al parque.
• Tú fuiste a la universidad.
• Él iba a la cocina.
• Nosotros iremos al cine.
• Ellas irían al cementerio.  

Conjugate Ir Verb in Spanish

Indicative Mood

In the indicative mood, the facts in the action of which the verb speaks are real and are given by certain events that have occurred, are developing, or are about to occur. These are some examples of phrases in the indicative mood of this important verb. Do you recognize these tenses?

Analyze the previous chart and let’s review some examples.

We use present tense to communicate that we go to a place in the present time. For example: Voy al restaurante (I go to the restaurant). However, this tense is mostly used to build the near future, this would be the future ‘’going to’’ in English, an example of this is: Voy a hacer el trabajo en la tarde (I’m going to do the work this afternoon).

We use perfect preterite to talk mainly about a place we visited. For example; Fui a Bogotá la semana pasada (I went to Bogotá last week).

We use imperfect preterite to express actions that didn’t have a determinate beginning nor a determinate ending. For example: Iba a la oficina. (He went to the office). However, this tense can also be used to build a kind of past future, that it is used when we want to talk about something we were about to do. For instance: Íbamos a comer en el restaurante (We were going to eat in the restaurant).

We use the future simple tense to communicate that we will visit a place in a future time: Ellas irán al parque (They will go to the park).

We use the simple conditional tense to express that we would probably visit a place: Tú irías al zoológico (You would go to the zoo).

Most used perfect tenses of the Indicative Mode

We build compounded tenses using the verb ‘’HABER’’ (HAVE) and the past participle of the main verb, in this case: ir -> ido. We use the compounded perfect preterite to express that we have visited a place several times since a certain time. For example: He ido al hospital 3 veces (I have gone to the hospital 3 times).

We use the pluperfect to express that we visited a place before an action developed in the past: Antes de encontrarnos, ya habíamos ido a la oficina (Before we met, we had already gone to the office).

We use the perfect future to express that we will have probably visited a place after a certain time. For example: Habremos ido a varios países en unos años (We will have gone to several countries). However, this tense is more commonly used to discuss situations that probably could have happened. For example: Supongo que habrá ido a la escuela (I guess he will have gone to the school).

We use perfect conditional to mention the consequence of an action that could have happened: Si tuvieramos carro, habríamos ido (If we had a car, we would have gone). As you already know, in Spanish we also have two other verbal modes: the subjunctive and the imperative mode.

Common forms of the Subjunctive Mode

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Subjunctive is usually used to express wishes, wants and hopes. And it is usually introduced by the words: que, ojalá, espero (que), si…, cuando.

The present form is used to express we hope to visit a place or someone to visit a certain place in the present time or near future: Espero que vayas conmigo a la fiesta (I hope you go to the party with me).

The imperfect preterite tense to mention a place that someone could probably visit: Ojalá fueran al concierto (If only they went to the concert)

The pluperfect is used to talk about a place we could probably have visited if a certain situation had happened: Si me hubieras dicho con tiempo, hubiera ido contigo (If you had told me in advance, I had gone with you).

The perfect preterite form is used to introduce the consequence when someone has visited a place: Cuando ustedes hayan ido a ese lugar, sabrán lo bello que es (When you have gone to that place, you will know how beautiful it is).

Let’s review a bit the Imperative Mode

We usually use the imperative mode to give some pieces of advices or mainly to give orders, this mode does not have tenses

• Ve con ella (Go with her)
• Vaya a la oficina de la rectora (Go to the director’s office)
• Vayamos a la fiesta (Let’s go to the party)
• Vayan con Dios (Go with God ): this is a common expression when we want to tell someone we wish them our blessings.
  

  Some Common Expressions using the Verb ‘’Ir’’:

Let’s see some common expressions with this essential verb.

• Ir de boca en boca: to go out with many people without establish a serious relationship.
• Ir de la mano: to go hand in hand.
• Ir de mal en peor: when a bad situation gets worse instead of improving.
• Ir de parranda: to go to a party.
• Ir de paseo: to do a journey.
• Ir de prisa a: being hurried up.
• Ir en decadencia: to get down, get worse.
• Irse por las ramas: to talk about many things, but not about the main topic.

Spanish Verb Ir-Quiz/Worksheet

1. Yo _____ al centro comercial (indicative mode: present simple)
2. Él __ a la fiesta (indicative mode: future simple)
3. Nosotros ______ al bar anoche (indicative mode: perfect preterite)
4. Ellas ____ con nosotros si tuvieran dinero (indicative mode: conditional)
5. Él __ ____ 3 veces a Monserrate (indicative mode: compounded perfect preterite)
6. Espero que (ustedes) _____ al supermercado. (subjuntive mode: present)
7. Ojalá ella _____ con nosotros al concierto (subjuntive mode: imperfect preterite)
8. (ustedes) ______ a visitar a su tía. (imperative mode)
9. Mijo*, (usted) _____ con Dios. (imperative mode)
10. Tú ___ a la universidad. (indicative mode: future)

*. Mijo is a common expression that older people use to talk to children or young people.

Answers

1. Voy
2. Irá
3. Fuimos
4. Irían
5. Ha ido
6. Vayan
7. Fuera
8. Vayan
9. Vaya
10. Irás

Note: in Spanish, this expression is used when we tell someone to focus on the main topic, to talk about it directly.

About the Author:

Specializations: Spanish Tutors on Skype

Bio: I am Julio Martinez, I have studied a bachelor’s degree in language teaching since 2019, and I am close to get graduated.  I have work as English teacher in some institutions in Colombia, I have also worked as tutor supporting some students to improve their Spanish levels and as tutor for personalized French classes. By the same way, I speak not only Spanish and English but also French and Portuguese, I have been participating in a research group of language teaching for people with difficulties. As well as, I have participated in different seminars of different institutions and Universities in the field of languages teaching.

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