Making Future Plans in Spanish: IR + A + Infinitive

¡Bienvenido a una nueva lección! In this lesson, we will learn to use the structure “IR + A + Infinitive” for making future plans in Spanish. This lesson will includes several examples and explanations that will help you talk about your future plans in Spanish too. We will introduce some new vocabulary through several conversations about someone’s plans for the weekend, summer vacations and other scenarios. Moreover, you will have the chance to practice listening. Let’s start…

Introductory video: Making plans in Spanish with IR + A + Infinitive

First of all, we will ask you to watch a short video introducing different questions for “what are your plans?” in Spanish. The video also presents the forms or conjugations of IR for each pronoun. It will show you several examples using the verb IR to talk about places, talk about activities and talk about your future plans in Spanish as well. The video has subtitles in English so you can read what the narrator is saying.

Describing your plans in Spanish and Asking about Others

What are your plans in Spanish

In order to ask about plans in Spanish, we normally use any of these three questions or variations of them:

1. ¿Cuál es tu plan para el lunes? (What’s your plan for Monday?)
2. ¿Qué planes tienes para hoy? (What are your plans for today?)
3. ¿Qué vas a hacer mañana? (What are you going to do tomorrow?)

As you may notice, we need a tilde on each question word in Spanish as in “Cuál” or “Qué”. Besides, possessive adjectives helps us to indicate whose plans we would like to know about. if you feel like asking differently, you also can do it using the verb TENER (to have) like in the second example above. A time expression should be added after the word PLANES to let the other person know the plans for the date we are interested on.

You may use Spanish time expressions like “para este fin de semana, para hoy, para las vacaciones, para esta noche”. For example, to ask “what are your plans for today” in Spanish we would say “¿Cuáles son tus planes para hoy?” and “what are your plans for tomorrow” would be “¿Cuáles son tus planes para mañana?”. Other ways to ask “what are your plans” in Spanish including “¿Qué piensas hacer esta noche?” and “¿Qué vas a hacer esta noche?” (using the verb IR + A + Infinitive ).

Describing your future plans in Spanish with IR + A + Infinitive

In order to say what you are going to do in Spanish, you will need to know the specific form of the verb in the future tense or else use the Spanish verb IR + A + Infinitive. We hope you already know how to conjugate IR, but if you can review its conjugations in our lesson about irregular verbs or check its different forms in the video above. When IR is used for the future tense in Spanish, it is necessary to place the preposition A (to) after any of his conjugations, that is between IR and the verb in infinitive. Here is the basic grammatical structure for making future plans in Spanish using IR plus infinitive:

Subject + IR + A + Infinitive + Spanish time expression

Some examples following this pattern are: “Yo voy a ver una película” and “Nosotros vamos a jugar futbol”, where both words VOY and VAMOS are forms of IR in Spanish. The subject is optional most of the time and the activity actually depends on what you are going to do, which could be anything from household chores (los quehaceres) to hobbies (pasatiempos).

Examples of Future Plans in Spanish using IR + A + Infinitive

Here are some examples of future plans in Spanish including more ways to ask and say your what you are going to do, apart from some new vocabulary. Please pay attention to the use of the verbs VISITAR, ACOMPAÑAR, PODER, GUSTAR and PROMETER. For the last conversation,  the main difference in speech is the use of VOS instead of TÚ as well as the pronunciation of verbs and some sounds in the language. Press the play button to listen to the audio.

Example No. 1

• Alejandro: ¿Cuáles son tus planes para el fin de semana?
• Doris: Voy a visitar a mis abuelos ¿y tú?
• Alejandro: Yo voy a ir al cine con Katia… Van a presentar una película muy buena.
• Doris: ¿En serio? Prometo acompañarte la próxima vez.
• Alejandro: Dale, me parece una buena idea.

Example No. 2

• Alejandro: ¿Qué vas a hacer mañana Doris?
• Doris: Voy a estudiar para mi examen de inglés y después voy a salir un rato. ¿Qué van a hacer Katia y tú?
• Alejandro: Vamos a limpiar la casa… Está hecha un desastre.
• Doris: Vaya, ojala que no terminen cansados.

Example No. 3

• Doris: ¿Qué piensas hacer en las vacaciones?
• Alejandro: Planeo pintar la casa
• Doris: ¿Ya tienes la pintura?
• Alejandro: No, pero voy a comprar colores cálidos. También vamos a celebrar el cumpleaños de Sofía. ¿Qué planeas hacer tú?
• Doris: Solo voy a relajarme y a leer unos cuantos libros.

Example No. 4

• Alejandro: ¿Qué planeas hacer el fin de semana?
• Doris: Mauricio y yo vamos a ir al concierto de Katia. ¿Vos no vas a ir?
• Alejandro: Que tuani, pero no puedo ir… Es una lástima pero seguro que ustedes se van a divertir. Después de todo, a vos te gusta mucho la música de Katia.
• Doris: Ojala que nos podás acompañar la próxima vez.
• Alejandro: Dale… en la próxima sí.

Language tip:

DALE is an idiomatic word used in Nicaragua meaning “Deal!”. Another common word in Nicaragua is TUANI, which means “Cool!”. If you go to Nicaragua, you will hear the phrase ¡Qué tuani! (That’s cool!) a lot.

Listening Activity No. 1: My plans for the weekend in Spanish

Key expressions in conversation:

• Quería hablar contigo means I wanted to talk to you
• ¡Qué rico! means So delicious!
• Vamos a pasar por ti means We are going to pick you up

Listening activity No. 2: Talking about vacation plans in Spanish

Related Spanish Worksheets:

• The Verb IR in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Talking about the Future in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Describing Houses and Apartments – Spanish Dialogues in PDF
• “What would you do if …?” in Spanish – Conversation Cards
• Let’s talk about the future in Spanish – Conversation cards
• Let’s talk about Travel in Spanish – Conversation cards