Near Future with *ir* + Infinitive in Portuguese

In Brief

Portuguese commonly talks about the future with the present tense of ir (“to go”) followed directly by an infinitive (the basic verb form, such as comer or sair): Vou comer means “I’m going to eat.” Use this pattern for intentions, plans, predictions based on the present situation, and events that are about to happen. There is no preposition between ir and the infinitive.

Overview

The Portuguese near future, often called futuro próximo, is built with a form of ir plus another verb in the infinitive. It works much like English “be going to”: vamos viajar is “we’re going to travel,” and vai chover is “it’s going to rain.” It is one of the most useful A2 patterns because it lets you discuss future plans without learning a new set of future-tense endings.

Despite the name, this construction is not restricted to the next few minutes or days. It can describe something imminent, but it can also express an intention or expected event months or years away when the context makes the future time clear. In everyday Portuguese, ir + infinitive is extremely common and often sounds more conversational than the simple future, such as farei (“I will do”).

The beginner rule is straightforward: conjugate ir for the person who will act, then leave the main verb unchanged. Once that rule is comfortable, the later sections explain regional choices, contrasts with the present tense and simple future, and pronoun placement.

How It Works

The basic pattern

The structure is:

subject + present tense of ir + infinitive + other information

In Nós vamos sair amanhã, nós is the subject (the person or group performing the action), vamos agrees with that subject, and sair stays in the infinitive. Only ir changes:

Person	Portuguese form	Meaning
eu	vou	I am going to
tu	vais	you are going to (singular, informal)
ele / ela / você	vai	he / she is going to; you are going to
nós	vamos	we are going to
vós	ides	you are going to (plural; limited use)
eles / elas / vocês	vão	they are going to; you are going to (plural)

Attach any infinitive directly to one of these forms:

• vou comer — I’m going to eat
• vais estudar — you’re going to study
• vai chover — it’s going to rain
• vamos sair — we’re going to go out
• vão chegar — they’re going to arrive

The infinitive does not agree with the subject: say eu vou sair, nós vamos sair, and eles vão sair. Forms such as vamos saímos incorrectly conjugate both verbs.

Statements, negatives, and questions

A normal statement needs no special future word:

• A Marta vai telefonar mais tarde. — Marta is going to call later.

To make the whole action negative, place não before the conjugated form of ir:

• A Marta não vai telefonar hoje. — Marta isn’t going to call today.

Portuguese can form a yes/no question without changing the word order; speech uses question intonation, and writing uses a question mark:

• Vais trabalhar amanhã? — Are you going to work tomorrow?

With a question word, put it where the meaning requires it:

• O que vais fazer? — What are you going to do?
• Quando vão chegar? — When are they going to arrive?
• Onde vamos ficar? — Where are we going to stay?

Portuguese often leaves out the subject pronoun when the verb form and context already identify the subject. Vou descansar is normally enough; eu vou descansar may add emphasis or contrast.

Do not insert a

English learners may know Spanish ir a + infinitive, but Portuguese does not use a in this future pattern:

• Portuguese: Vou comprar pão.
• Not: Vou a comprar pão.

The preposition a does appear when ir expresses actual movement toward a destination: Vou ao mercado (“I’m going to the market”). Compare:

• Vou ao mercado. — I’m going to the market. (ao mercado is a destination.)
• Vou comprar pão. — I’m going to buy bread. (comprar is the planned action.)
• Vou ao mercado comprar pão. — I’m going to the market to buy bread.

Time expressions

The construction itself marks the action as future, but a time expression often makes the plan more precise:

• daqui a pouco — in a little while
• logo — soon / later (depending on context)
• esta noite — tonight
• amanhã — tomorrow
• no próximo mês — next month
• um dia — one day

A distant time expression is possible: Um dia vamos viver perto do mar (“One day we’re going to live near the sea”). “Near future” is therefore a convenient teaching label, not a strict time limit.

Ir as movement or as a future helper

Sometimes the meaning of ir is literal movement; sometimes it mainly helps locate another action in the future. The words around it usually remove any ambiguity:

• Vou a Lisboa amanhã. — I’m going to Lisbon tomorrow. (movement)
• Vou visitar Lisboa amanhã. — I’m going to visit Lisbon tomorrow. (future plan)

When the main action is also ir, Portuguese can say vou ir: Vou ir mais cedo (“I’m going to go earlier”). This is grammatically possible and common in Brazilian speech. In European Portuguese, speakers often prefer a simple present form with future meaning—Vou mais cedo—or choose another natural phrasing, depending on context.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Vou comer daqui a pouco.	I’m going to eat in a little while.	Immediate intention
O que vais fazer no fim de semana?	What are you going to do at the weekend?	Informal singular tu
A Ana vai começar um curso em setembro.	Ana is going to start a course in September.	A planned event
Olha para aquelas nuvens: vai chover.	Look at those clouds: it’s going to rain.	Prediction from present evidence
Vamos sair amanhã à noite.	We’re going to go out tomorrow night.	First-person plural
Não vou comprar isso.	I’m not going to buy that.	Negation before vou
Vocês vão ficar aqui?	Are you going to stay here?	Plural “you”
Eles vão chegar depois do almoço.	They’re going to arrive after lunch.	Expected future event
Vou ligar-te quando chegar.	I’m going to call you when I arrive.	European Portuguese pronoun placement
A gente vai pedir uma sobremesa.	We’re going to order a dessert.	Common Brazilian a gente + singular vai
Você vai precisar do passaporte.	You’re going to need your passport.	Você takes third-person vai
Um dia vamos conhecer os Açores.	One day we’re going to visit the Azores.	Distant intention
Cuidado! O copo vai cair.	Careful! The glass is going to fall.	Something imminent
Quando é que vais contar a verdade?	When are you going to tell the truth?	Common European Portuguese question pattern

Common Mistakes

Adding a preposition before the infinitive

• Wrong: Vou a estudar esta noite.
• Right: Vou estudar esta noite.
• Why: Portuguese uses ir directly before the infinitive. Do not copy Spanish ir a or insert English “to” as a separate Portuguese word.

Conjugating both verbs

• Wrong: Nós vamos estudamos amanhã.
• Right: Nós vamos estudar amanhã.
• Why: Only ir agrees with the subject. The main action remains in its basic infinitive form.

Using the wrong form with você or vocês

• Wrong: Você vais sair? / Vocês vais sair?
• Right: Você vai sair? / Vocês vão sair?
• Why: Although você means “you,” it takes a third-person singular verb; vocês takes the third-person plural.

Putting não between the two verbs

• Wrong: Vou não trabalhar amanhã.
• Right: Não vou trabalhar amanhã.
• Why: To deny the planned action as a whole, put não before the conjugated verb ir.

Confusing a destination with a future action

• Wrong: Vou mercado comprar pão.
• Right: Vou ao mercado comprar pão.
• Why: No preposition is used before the future infinitive, but a destination still needs its normal preposition. Here a + o mercado contracts to ao mercado.

Treating a gente as grammatically plural

• Wrong: A gente vamos sair.
• Right: A gente vai sair.
• Why: In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, a gente commonly means “we,” but grammatically it takes a third-person singular verb.

Usage Notes

European and Brazilian choices

The construction is standard across Portuguese varieties. The pattern itself does not change, but the preferred subject forms do. European Portuguese frequently uses tu vais for one informal listener and vocês vão for several people. Brazilian usage varies by region: você vai is widespread for singular “you,” while tu may be used with either vais or, in informal regional speech, a third-person form. As a learner, use the standard agreement taught for your chosen variety.

For “we,” both varieties use nós vamos. Brazilian conversation also very often uses a gente vai. The form vós ides belongs to the full paradigm, but it is absent from most everyday conversation; it survives in limited regional, religious, literary, or deliberately formal contexts.

How close must the future be?

English “be going to” and Portuguese ir + infinitive overlap closely, which makes the pattern easy to learn. Neither construction necessarily means that movement is taking place, and both can express plans and evidence-based predictions. Still, translation is guided by context rather than by a one-to-one formula. English may use “will” where conversational Portuguese naturally uses ir + infinitive:

• Acho que vai ser difícil. — I think it will be difficult.

Portuguese can also use the present tense for a scheduled or firmly arranged future event, especially with a time phrase:

• Amanhã trabalho em casa. — I’m working from home tomorrow.
• Amanhã vou trabalhar em casa. — I’m going to work from home tomorrow.

The first presents the event almost as part of the schedule; the second explicitly frames it as future.

Beyond the Basics: Contrast and Pronoun Placement

You do not need to master these details at A2, but they explain forms you will encounter later.

Near future versus simple future

Portuguese also has a simple future formed with endings, such as farei (“I will do”), choverá (“it will rain”), and iremos (“we will go”). In everyday conversation, ir + infinitive is often the more natural choice for plans and ordinary predictions. The simple future is especially visible in formal writing, announcements, promises, or language with a more detached or emphatic tone.

Portuguese	English	Typical effect
Vou enviar o relatório amanhã.	I’m going to send the report tomorrow.	Conversational plan or intention
Enviarei o relatório amanhã.	I will send the report tomorrow.	More formal, firm, or written
Vai chover à tarde.	It’s going to rain this afternoon.	Ordinary prediction
Choverá durante a tarde.	It will rain during the afternoon.	Forecast-like or formal style

These are tendencies, not rigid rules. Time, context, variety, and the speaker’s style all matter.

An imperfect form of ir can express a past plan

If ir is changed to the imperfect past—ia, ias, ia, íamos, iam—the construction describes something that was going to happen:

• Eu ia telefonar-te, mas fiquei sem bateria. — I was going to call you, but my battery died.
• Íamos sair, mas começou a chover. — We were going to go out, but it started raining.

This is no longer the basic near future, but it shows that the same two-verb structure can be viewed from a past point in time.

Object pronouns may look different by variety

An object pronoun is a short word meaning someone or something affected by the action, such as “you” in “call you.” Its position around a two-verb construction varies with grammar and regional style. European Portuguese commonly has forms such as vou ligar-te and, under negation, não te vou ligar. Brazilian speech often prefers vou te ligar, while formal Brazilian writing may follow more conservative placement rules.

At A2, the safest strategy is to learn the future construction first as a solid unit—vou ligar, vais comprar, vamos fazer—and study pronoun placement as its own topic rather than guessing from English word order.

Practice Tips

1. Build a six-line plan chart. Choose one familiar infinitive, such as viajar, and combine it with vou, vais, vai, vamos, ides, and vão. Then repeat with a different verb, keeping the infinitive unchanged.
2. Narrate your real plans. Each morning, say or write three sentences: Hoje vou..., Depois vou..., and Esta noite vou.... Add one negative sentence and one question to practise the full pattern.
3. Listen for the first verb. In natural audio, note whether speakers choose vou/vai/vamos/vão, a present-tense verb with future meaning, or a simple-future form. This develops a feel for register without forcing you to use every alternative immediately.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Ir (to go) — learn the irregular present forms vou, vais, vai, vamos, ides, and vão.
• Next step: Simple Future — compare conversational ir + infinitive with forms such as farei and dirão.