Learn how to use the irregular Spanish verb meaning "to go"
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on, pod101 world? My name is Carlos. In this lesson, you will learn about the verb “ir”. |
| Carlos: The conversation takes place on a street. |
| Dylan: The conversation is between Jorge and a man. |
| Carlos: The speakers are strangers so they’ll be speaking formally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JORGE: Señor, disculpe, voy al centro, ¿cuál autobús debo tomar? |
| HOMBRE: Coja el bus que dice centro. |
| JORGE: ¿Coger? |
| HOMBRE: Bueno, señor, tome el bus que dice centro, si me va a corregir, mejor ni lo ayudo. |
| JORGE: Perdón, no lo estoy corrigiendo, no se vaya… Ese bus dice centro, ¡lo voy a tomar! |
| Jorge: Sir, excuse me, I’m going downtown. What bus should I take? |
| Hombre: Grab the bus that says "downtown." |
| Jorge: Grab? |
| Hombre: Well sir, take the bus that says "downtown." If you're going to correct me, I better not help you. |
| Jorge: Sorry, I’m not correcting you. Don’t leave! This bus says "downtown." I'm going to take it! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: I have a feeling he’s going to get lost. |
| Carlos: Well, it seems that he’s pretty sensitive, well if you think you are going to correct me… |
| Dylan: Yeah, that wasn’t nice. |
| Carlos: Yes, he’s obviously lost and I assume he’s a gringo. |
| Dylan: Yes, he’s a foreigner I mean, he doesn’t know how to get downtown so just help out the dude. |
| Carlos: We look up a lot of times like, “oh look church, it’s pretty”, we get lost, this is how it happens. |
| Dylan: Yes, yes, yes. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Tomar”. |
| Carlos: “To drink”, “to take”, “to have.” |
| Dylan: “To-mar”, “tomar”. |
| Dylan: “Coger”. |
| Carlos: “To catch” a bus, a train, a taxi... |
| Dylan: “Co-ger”, “coger”. |
| Dylan: “Corregir”. |
| Carlos: “To correct”, “to mark.” |
| Dylan: “Co-rre-gir”, “corregir”. |
| Dylan: “Mejor”. |
| Carlos: “Better”, “best.” |
| Dylan: “Me-jor”, “mejor”. |
| Dylan: “Ni”. |
| Carlos: “Neither”, “nor.” |
| Dylan: “Ni”, “ni”. |
| Dylan: “Irse”. |
| Carlos: “To go”, reflexive verb. |
| Dylan: “Ir-se”, “irse”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Let’s have a closer look at the use of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we’ll look at is “tomar”. |
| Carlos: “Tomar”. “To drink”, “to take”, “to have.” An oldie but goodie that just keeps getting better. |
| Dylan: Why do you think it’s getting better? |
| Carlos: I just keep finding situations in which to use it. |
| Dylan: That’s a good thing. |
| Carlos: Well, just saying, you get excited when you can use “tomar” in more ways than just drink. Which I would say is the most common usage that I find. |
| Dylan: Well, Jorge is falling into a problem of translation. |
| Carlos: Right, he is asking the man where to go and asks “Señor, disculpe, voy al centro, ¿cuál autobús debo tomar?” |
| Dylan: “Sir, excuse me, I am going down town, what bus should I take?” |
| Carlos: So “tomar” here is being used in a perfectly understandable context of taking a bus. |
| Dylan: Right. But similar to using “beber” which is really only used in Spain, Jorge’s confused with a synonym. |
| Carlos: Which is? |
| Dylan: Our next word. But first we need to get more out of this and listen to a sample sentence and a related word. |
| Carlos: Right, “yo tomé el bus equivocado”. |
| Dylan: “I took the wrong bus.” |
| Carlos: You know Dylan, I really haven’t done that much in Costa Rica, I think I take the wrong train in New York more than I take the wrong busses here. |
| Dylan: True. Now “beber” which means simply “to drink” is a related word which means “to drink” is a related word which you have already provided to us. |
| Carlos: Right and although it will be understood anywhere, I think it should be noted once again that this verb is really only used in Spain. |
| Dylan: So another related word is a little slangy, “coger”. |
| Carlos: “Coger”, “to catch.” Specifically a bus or a taxi. Could I use it for a train? |
| Dylan: Yes, I don’t see why not. |
| Carlos: And this is where Jorge is confused. |
| Dylan: Right, the man says “Coja el bus que dice centro”. |
| Carlos: And at least he actually used the verb with the infinitive “coger”. |
| Dylan: Right, he recognized it but he does not recognize its meaning. |
| Carlos: That’s a good step. |
| Dylan: Give us a sample sentence. |
| Carlos: “Para ir a mi casa tiene que coger un taxi”. |
| Dylan: “To go to my house you have to take a taxi.” Now you know there is even another word that can be used as a related word? |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: “Agarrar”. |
| Carlos: That’s the first time I ever heard that. |
| Dylan: “To grab” as in… |
| Carlos: Okay. “To grab a taxi.” Unless you can grab a bus. |
| Dylan: Yeah, that doesn’t sound right, either way it’s related. |
| Carlos: Next up. |
| Dylan: Another verb, “corregir”. |
| Carlos: “Corregir”, “to correct”, “to mark.” Something that is done to people learning a second language constantly. |
| Dylan: This is where Jorge gets in a little bit of trouble. Although I think the man is being a bit insensitive. It’s obvious the boy is a language learner. |
| Carlos: Right, this is where the man responds “Bueno, señor, tome el bus que dice centro, si me va a corregir, mejor ni lo ayudo”. |
| Dylan: “Well sir, take the bus that says downtown. If you are going to correct me, I better not help you.” |
| Carlos: That’s just not right. |
| Dylan: What can you do, some people are just like that. |
| Carlos: That’s why “a mi no me gusta corregir a mis amigos”. |
| Dylan: It’s never good to correct your friends, at least not in front of everyone. You don’t want to be that guy. |
| Carlos: I used to work with someone like that, always correcting people’s grammatical mistakes. Now listen, I’m an English teacher and I can understand correcting mistakes in writing, but mistakes in speaking, you have got to let those go sometimes. |
| Dylan: No need to give “las correcciones”. |
| Carlos: “The corrections.” |
| Dylan: Next up, “mejor”. |
| Carlos: “Mejor”, “better”, “best.” |
| Dylan: Once again, the same example with the man being obnoxious. |
| Carlos: “Bueno, señor, tome el bus que dice centro, si me va a corregir, mejor ni lo ayudo”. |
| Dylan: “Well sir, take the bus that says downtown, if you are going to correct me, I better not help you.” |
| Carlos: That just rubs me the wrong way. |
| Dylan: Well, it’s a fictional situation. Mejor déjalo. |
| Carlos: I will leave it but I have to act passionate of the conversation for the audience. Better teaching I say. |
| Dylan: You are definitely a teacher dedicated to dramatics. Could be worse. |
| Carlos: Or the opposite of “mejor” which is “peor”. |
| Dylan: Which means “worse”. |
| Carlos: And actually sounds worse as well. |
| Dylan: Now our next word is small. |
| Carlos: Small, how small? |
| Dylan: Well, I think as small as you can get. I think to be considered a word you have to have at least two letters. |
| Carlos: That maybe right. |
| Dylan: “Ni”. |
| Carlos: “Neither”, “nor.” |
| Dylan: Very good. |
| Carlos: I like this conjunction. |
| Dylan: And why is that? |
| Carlos: I started listening to music as I was learning Spanish and came across this song that is apparently well known. And it says once again “no soy de aquí ni soy de allá”. |
| Dylan: We all know that song. “I’m not from here nor from there.” |
| Carlos: Exactly and if it wasn’t simply or for or o figured nor sounded better. |
| Dylan: Very good observation. |
| Carlos: I swear music does help. It’s good advice but make sure to print out the lyrics. |
| Dylan: And we heard in the conversation, “mejor ni lo ayudo”. |
| Carlos: “I better not help you.” Or to be more direct and sound unnatural, “neither should I help you.” |
| Dylan: Yeah, it doesn’t sound good. |
| Carlos: Last but not least... |
| Dylan: Last but not least the classic “ir”, “to go.” |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: But here we have the reflexive “irse”. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: And how do we know that? |
| Carlos: Because the reflexive pronoun corrected to the infinitive. |
| Dylan: Exactly. And which reflexive pronoun is in use here? |
| Carlos: Well, I’ll be the reflexive pronoun “se”. So how do we hear it in an example? |
| Dylan: In today’s conversation we heard “no se vaya”. |
| Carlos: “Don’t leave.” |
| Dylan: Which we know is in the imperative mood. |
| Carlos: Otherwise known as commands. |
| Dylan: And since “ir” in all its forms is irregular, we must learn the different conjugations. |
| Carlos: Right, like if we wanted to use the preterit we could say “Marcos ayer se fue muy temprano”. |
| Dylan: Yes, “today Marcos left very early.” |
| Carlos: So the reflexive pronoun changes depending on... |
| Dylan: Depending on who the verb is referring to. But in this example, the reflective pronoun remained the same. |
| Carlos: So what’s another reflexive verb that could be related? |
| Dylan: How about “venirse”. |
| Carlos: “To come”, right? That works. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Okay. This is the newbie series but we have a very important verb here that I think we should look over again. |
| Carlos: Sounds good, which? |
| Dylan: The verb “ir”, “to go.” |
| Carlos: You know that is a very important verb that I can’t think we’ve shown a lot of attention on. |
| Dylan: Well the verb “ir”, “to go”, is an irregular verb. |
| Carlos: Right and we just mentioned that audience. That means it doesn’t follow the basic patterns of other “ir” verbs. |
| Dylan: Take “pedir” for example. The verb “ir” is very important for many reasons. It’s used very frequently on its own and with other constructions with other verbs. |
| Carlos: Which conjugation do you want to deal with today, Dylan? |
| Dylan: Well, here you will find the conjugation of “ir” in the present tense of the indicative mood. “Yo voy”. |
| Carlos: “I go.” |
| Dylan: “Tú vas”. |
| Carlos: “You go (informal).” |
| Dylan: “Él/ella/usted va”. |
| Carlos: “He/she/you go (formal).” |
| Dylan: “Nosotros vamos”. |
| Carlos: “We go.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros vais”. |
| Carlos: “You all go (informal).” |
| Dylan: “Ellos/ellas van”. |
| Carlos: “They go.” |
| Dylan: “Ustedes van”. |
| Carlos: “You all go (formal). “So let’s check out some sample sentences. |
| Dylan: “Yo voy a San Juan”. |
| Carlos: “I’m going to San Juan.” |
| Dylan: “Ustedes van con Jorge y Claudia”. |
| Carlos: “You all go with Jorge and Claudia.” |
| Dylan: “¡Ya vamos!” |
| Carlos: “Let’s go already!” You know we also heard this verb four times in our conversation. Just see how common it is. |
| Dylan: “Señor, disculpe, voy al centro, ¿cuál autobús debo tomar?” |
| Carlos: “Sir excuse me, I’m going downtown, what bus should I take?” |
| Dylan: “Bueno, señor, tome el bus que dice centro, si me va a corregir, mejor ni lo ayudo”. |
| Carlos: “Well sir, take the bus that says downtown. If you are going to correct me, I better not help you.” |
| Dylan: “Perdón, no lo estoy corrigiendo, no se vaya… Ese bus dice centro, ¡lo voy a tomar!” |
| Carlos: “Sorry I’m not correcting you, don’t leave, this bus says downtown, I’m going to take it.” Which also includes guys, a periphrastic construction of “ir” plus “a” plus infinitive, “voy a tomar”. |
| Dylan: Notice that the second person singular form has the “s” ending. Which is characteristic of the “tú”, “you” form. Also note that the third person singular ends in an open vowel “a” which is also characteristic. In addition to “nosotros” we form ends with “mos” which it always does. The third person plural ends with an “n” which it always does as well. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Well guys, it always does this. Learn these patterns and I guarantee you it will help you in the long run. Okay guys, but you know what? That just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide