Learn how to say "let's [verb]" using vamos a + [infinitive verb]
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi everyone, I’m Jessi. |
| Karen: And I’m Karen. “Let’s go out in Latin America.” ¿Cómo estás, Jessi? |
| Jessi: Excelente, Karen. ¿Y tú? |
| Karen: Muy bien, gracias. |
| Jessi: So Karen, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Karen: In this lesson, listeners are going to learn about “ir a” plus infinitive verb to talk about future actions. |
| Jessi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Karen: The conversation takes place at Octavio’s house and it’s between Octavio and Tito. |
| Jessi: Okay, let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Octavio: Qué aburrimiento. Vamos a hacer algo. |
| Tito: Pero apenas es miércoles. No hay mucho que hacer esta noche. |
| Octavio: Bueno, vamos a hablarle a Marco, él siempre tiene buenas ideas. |
| Tito: Me parece. Deja le marco. |
| Octavio: I'm so bored. Let's do something. |
| Tito: But it's only Wednesday. There isn't much to do tonight. |
| Octavio: Okay, let's talk to Marco; he always has good ideas. |
| Tito: I agree, let me call him. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Karen: Yes. Well, I think young people in particular don’t mind hanging out during the week with friends and stuff, especially as it gets later in the week, say Thursday. |
| Jessi: Aaah since Friday is the last day of work, a lot of people start going out on Thursdays. |
| Karen: Yes, it’s pretty common for places to be crowded even on Thursdays. |
| Jessi: And a lot of places are open late, aren’t they? |
| Karen: Yes. That’s another thing you’ll find, a lot of places stay open late. |
| Jessi: Right, I think you can always find a party somewhere in Latin America. |
| Karen: Definitely. |
| Jessi: Speaking of parties in Latin America, if you want to learn more about them, we talk a bit about them in Refresher series Lesson 21. |
| Karen: Oh, right. Like what they do, what kind of Music they play,... |
| Jessi: Right, it’s all in Spanish but I think it would be good for listening. |
| Karen: Yes, I think so. |
| Jessi: So feel free to give that lesson a listen to learn more. Okay, what do you say we move on to the vocabulary? |
| Karen: Let’s do that. |
| Jessi: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Karen: “Aburrimiento”. |
| Jessi: “Boredom.” |
| Karen: “A-bu-rri-mien-to”, “aburrimiento”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Apenas”. |
| Jessi: “As soon as”, “no sooner than”, “hardly.” |
| Karen: “A-pe-nas”, “apenas”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Marcar”. |
| Jessi: “To dial.” |
| Karen: “Mar-car”, “marcar”. |
| Jessi: The next word is... |
| Karen: “Hablar”. |
| Jessi: “To speak”, “to talk.” |
| Karen: “Ha-blar”, “hablar”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Idea”. |
| Jessi: “Idea.” |
| Karen: “I-de-a”, “idea”. |
| Jessi: The next word is... |
| Karen: “Me parece”. |
| Jessi: “I think so”, “I agree.” |
| Karen: “Me pa-re-ce”, “me parece”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Siempre”. |
| Jessi: “Always.” |
| Karen: “Siem-pre”, “siempre”. |
| Jessi: Last we have... |
| Karen: “Noche”. |
| Jessi: “Night.” |
| Karen: “No-che”, “noche”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Jessi: Let’s have a closer look for the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we’ll look at is... |
| Karen: “Aburrimiento”. |
| Jessi: “Boredom.” |
| Karen: “Aburrimiento” is related to the word “aburrido”, meaning “bored” or “boring.” |
| Jessi: How did they use it in the dialogue? |
| Karen: Well, in the dialogue, Octavio said “Qué aburrimiento”. |
| Jessi: Now since this is a noun, it’s literally like saying, “what a bore” or “what boredom.” In the translation though, it becomes “I’m so bored.” Okay, and the next word? |
| Karen: “Apenas”. |
| Jessi: “As soon as”, “no sooner than”, “hardly”, “only”, it has all those meanings. |
| Karen: Yes, this adverb has many different meanings. |
| Jessi: In the dialogue though, they used it to mean “only.” Right? |
| Karen: Yes, Octavio said that they should do something and Tito says “pero apenas es miércoles”. |
| Jessi: Like, “but it’s only Wednesday”. |
| Karen: Right, I’d say its most common meaning though is “hardly” or “barely.” |
| Jessi: Can we hear an example of that? |
| Karen: Sure. For example, “apenas puedo moverme”. |
| Jessi: “I can barely move.” |
| Karen: Right. So depending on the context, the meaning changes. |
| Jessi: Okay. And the next word? |
| Karen: “Hablar”. |
| Jessi: “To talk”, and this is an “ar” verb. |
| Karen: Yes, and in the dialogue Octavio says “bueno, vamos a hablarle a Marco”. |
| Jessi: Right, which is “let’s talk to Marco.” And the last word? |
| Karen: “Marcar”. |
| Jessi: “To mark”, “to dial.” |
| Karen: Usually “marcar” is used to mark something but in many cases like in the dialogue it also means “to dial” as in “to call.” |
| Jessi: Okay, great. Now let’s move on to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Karen: Sí, pasemos. In this lesson you will learn how to talk about future actions using “ir” plus “a” plus a verb in the infinitive. |
| Jessi: Now you may know that Spanish has a separate future tense that is also of course used to talk about future actions, but you’ll find that this structure is very common. |
| Karen: Right, just like saying “going to” plus a verb. |
| Jessi: So as we said, the verb, the action that’s going to take place in the future, is in the infinitive. That never changes. |
| Karen: Right. What does change though is the verb “ir” in the beginning. |
| Jessi: It’s pretty basic but let’s review those conjugations really quickly. |
| Karen: Okay. First we have “yo voy”. |
| Jessi: “I go.” |
| Karen: “Tú vas”. |
| Jessi: “You go.” |
| Karen: “Él/ella va”. |
| Jessi: “He/she goes.” |
| Karen: “Nosotros vamos”. |
| Jessi: “We go.” |
| Karen: “Vosotros vais”. |
| Jessi: “You all go”, used in Spain. |
| Karen: “Ellos van”. |
| Jessi: “They go.” |
| Karen: Remember that after the conjugated verb “ir” you need the preposition “a”. |
| Jessi: Right, “ir a” verb. “Going to do” verb. |
| Karen: That’s right. |
| Jessi: Let’s go through some examples now. |
| Karen: Sure, how about “voy a comer una manzana”? |
| Jessi: Okay. So we have the verb “ir” conjugated in the first person which is “voy”, then the preposition “a” and finally the verb in the infinitive form, “comer”. “Voy a comer una manzana”. “I’m going to eat an apple.” |
| Karen: Correct. Let’s look at another example, “él va a trabajar hoy”. |
| Jessi: “Trabajar”, as you know, means “work”, so “él va a trabajar” is “he is going to work.” Not bad at all, right listeners? It’s pretty simple. |
| Karen: Yes, I think so. There is something important I want to point out. |
| Jessi: Okay. |
| Karen: When we use this structure in the first person plural, for “nosotros” or “nosotras”, it can take on another meaning. |
| Jessi: Ahh. You mean when we use “vamos a” plus a verb? |
| Karen: Exactly. “Vamos a” plus a verb is used to talk about future actions too, of course, but it also has the meaning of “let’s.” |
| Jessi: So there are two possible interpretations for “vamos a” plus a verb. |
| Karen: Right. For example, if I said, “vamos a la playa”, just straight like that, one meaning would be “we are going to the beach.” |
| Jessi: So just a straightforward statement. |
| Karen: Yes. But if I change the tone a little and say “¡vamos a la playa!” it could mean “let’s go to the beach.” |
| Jessi: Like making a suggestion. |
| Karen: Exactly. So in the dialogue we actually had this meaning. |
| Jessi: Aaah, right in the beginning when Octavio says... |
| Karen: “Vamos a hacer algo” |
| Jessi: He means “let’s do something”, not “we are going to do something.” That wouldn’t even make much sense in that context anyway. |
| Karen: Right. Also, later on Octavio says “vamos a hablarle a Marco”. |
| Jessi: “Let’s talk to Marco”, another suggestion. |
| Karen: That’s exactly, right. So just keep in mind that this “vamos a” can have both meanings. |
Outro |
| Jessi: Okay, great. Well, I think that’s going to wrap it up for this lesson. Thanks for listening everyone. |
| Karen: See you later! ¡Hasta luego! |
| Jessi: ¡Adiós! |
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