Vamos
Say your plans for tonight, tomorrow and the weekend, out loud in Spanish.
Ir + a + infinitive is how Spanish speakers actually talk about the future: conjugate ir (voy, vas, va, vamos, van), keep the a, and leave the second verb alone — voy a estudiar español, I'm going to study Spanish. The a is not optional (voy a comer, never voy comer), and only ir conjugates (voy a hablar, not voy a hablo). In everyday conversation this construction beats the formal future tense (hablaré, comeré) by a mile — master it and your plans, predictions and invitations all come from one pattern. Bonus: vamos a cenar can mean "we're going to have dinner" or "let's have dinner", depending on your tone.
Below: the phrases that carry your plans, the mistakes that give beginners away, and a way to say it all out loud in a real exchange — no conjugation tables, no fill-in-the-blanks.
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Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
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The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
There are no conjugation tables to fill in here. In the Vamos lessons you talk, and Carla keeps pulling your plans out of you: ¿qué vas a hacer este fin de semana? — give her two or three real answers with voy a…. She takes one verb and spins it around the table — voy a comer, vas a comer, vamos a comer — then flips the script and has you ask the questions: ¿qué vas a hacer?, ¿adónde vas? Out loud, in the moment, until "going to" stops needing translation.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 5 lessons and Vamos is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Ir is fully irregular — there's no pattern to derive, just a set to memorize: voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van. (Vais belongs to Spain; Latin America doesn't use that form.) Pair each with its pronoun until it's automatic.
No — only ir conjugates. The second verb always stays in the infinitive: voy a hablar, never voy a hablo. And the a is mandatory: voy a comer, never voy comer.
Both mean you'll speak, but voy a hablar is what people actually say in conversation. The formal future (hablaré, comeré) survives mostly in writing and formal speech — at A1, ir a + infinitive is the only future you need.
Both — context and tone decide. Vamos a cenar can be a plan (we're going to have dinner) or a suggestion (let's have dinner). Vamos a ver qué pasa = let's see what happens; and plain ¡vamos, que llegamos tarde! is just "let's go, we're late!"
Bolt a time expression onto the pattern: voy a correr mañana, vamos a cenar fuera esta noche, va a empezar el próximo lunes. Locals compress it — in Mexico you'll hear el finde for the weekend and ahorita for "in a bit"; in the Caribbean, el lunes que viene for next Monday.
