Some Spanish verbs refuse a bare infinitive and demand the preposition a between themselves and the next verb. Voy a salir. Empecé a llover. Aprendí a cocinar paella en Valencia. Ayúdame a mover esto. The a is not optional decoration — it is part of the verb's syntactic frame, just like to in English listen to or for in wait for. Drop it and the sentence becomes ungrammatical. There is no way to predict from meaning which verbs take a and which take de or en; you have to learn the verb and its preposition as a single unit.
Why a and not nothing?
The good news is that a-taking verbs are not random. Most of them fall into one of four semantic clusters: motion toward an action, initiation, teaching and learning, or commitment. Recognising the clusters helps you generalise, even if individual verbs still need to be memorised.
| Cluster | Verbs | Intuition |
|---|---|---|
| Motion toward an action | ir a, venir a, salir a, volver a, llegar a, bajar a, subir a, pasar a | The body (or attention) moves toward doing X. |
| Initiation / setting out | empezar a, comenzar a, ponerse a, echarse a, romper a | Starting an action; entering an action's phase. |
| Teaching / learning | aprender a, enseñar a, acostumbrarse a, habituarse a | Acquiring or transmitting a skill. |
| Commitment / inducement | ayudar a, animar a, invitar a, obligar a, forzar a, decidirse a, atreverse a, comprometerse a, dedicarse a | Committing oneself, or pushing another, into the action. |
The semantic glue is directionality: each of these verbs implies movement, attention, or commitment toward the action expressed by the infinitive. The preposition a historically meant "to / toward," and that meaning still flickers through these constructions.
Cluster one: motion toward an action
These verbs use a + infinitive to express the purpose of a movement.
Voy a comprar el pan, ¿quieres algo?
I'm going to buy bread — do you want anything?
Vine a verte porque necesitaba hablar contigo.
I came to see you because I needed to talk.
Bajamos a desayunar al bar de la esquina.
We went downstairs to have breakfast at the corner bar.
Salí a pasear al perro y empezó a diluviar.
I went out to walk the dog and it started pouring.
In these sentences, a + infinitive answers for what purpose: I went out to walk the dog, I came to see you. The construction overlaps with para + infinitive in meaning, but it is the standard way to combine a motion verb with its purpose. Salí para pasear al perro sounds slightly bookish; salí a pasear is what you actually hear.
Volver a + infinitive: do something again
No quiero volver a pasar por esto.
I don't want to go through this again.
Volvió a llamar a las tres de la mañana.
He called again at three in the morning.
Volver a + infinitive is a tiny grammar tool that means "to do X again." Spanish does not have a one-word equivalent of English re-do for every verb, so this periphrasis fills the gap. Volví a leer el libro — "I read the book again." It is far more common than otra vez + verb in spoken Spanish.
Ir a + infinitive: the periphrastic future
¿Qué vais a hacer este fin de semana?
What are you (all) going to do this weekend?
Va a llover, mejor cogemos un paraguas.
It's going to rain — better take an umbrella.
Ir a + infinitive is the workhorse future in spoken peninsular Spanish. Even more than the morphological future (haré, iré), this is how speakers in Spain talk about plans and predictions. Notice the peninsular vais in the first example: that's how vosotros shows up.
Cluster two: initiation
These verbs all mean begin to in some flavour. Spanish is rich here — there are at least five common verbs of starting, each with its own nuance.
Empezó a llover justo cuando salimos.
It started raining just as we were leaving.
Cuando me lo contó, me puse a reír sin parar.
When he told me, I burst out laughing and couldn't stop.
El bebé se echó a llorar al ver al payaso.
The baby burst into tears on seeing the clown.
De repente rompió a hablar en inglés perfecto.
Suddenly he broke into perfect English.
The nuances are worth knowing:
- Empezar a / comenzar a — neutral begin to. Comenzar is slightly more formal; empezar is everyday.
- Ponerse a — set about doing, often with energy or determination. Me pongo a estudiar a las nueve.
- Echarse a — burst into, typically with verbs of emotion (llorar, reír, correr, temblar). Suggests a sudden, involuntary start.
- Romper a — also burst into, used with crying, laughing, talking. Slightly more literary than echarse a.
All four require a. Without it the sentence is broken: ❌Empezó llover is not a sentence in Spanish.
Cluster three: teaching and learning
Estoy aprendiendo a tocar la guitarra con un profesor en Lavapiés.
I'm learning to play the guitar with a teacher in Lavapiés.
Mi padre me enseñó a montar en bici cuando tenía cinco años.
My father taught me to ride a bike when I was five.
No me acostumbro a cenar tan pronto, en España son las diez.
I can't get used to having dinner so early — in Spain it's ten.
Notice that all three verbs in this cluster — aprender, enseñar, acostumbrarse — take a + infinitive. The pattern is rock-solid; once you spot a teaching/learning verb, expect a.
A peninsular note: acostumbrarse a is sometimes spelled differently in Latin America (you may see habituarse a), but in Spain acostumbrarse is the everyday form. With pronominal verbs like acostumbrarse, the a still follows the verb proper, not the pronoun: me acostumbro a cenar tarde, not ❌me a acostumbro cenar.
Cluster four: commitment, inducement, daring
This is the largest and most varied cluster. The common thread is commitment: either the subject commits themselves to an action, or someone pushes someone else into it.
Helping, inviting, encouraging, forcing
¿Me ayudas a mover el sofá un momento?
Can you help me move the sofa for a moment?
Sus amigos la animaron a presentarse al concurso.
Her friends encouraged her to enter the contest.
Te invito a comer este domingo, ¿qué te apetece?
I'm inviting you to lunch this Sunday — what do you fancy?
Nos obligaron a esperar más de dos horas.
They forced us to wait more than two hours.
These verbs all take a personal object (me, la, te, nos) + a + infinitive. The pattern is X helps/invites/encourages/forces Y to do Z. English has the same shape (help me move it, force them to wait), which makes the construction easy to acquire — you just need to remember the a.
Daring, deciding, committing
No me atrevo a decírselo todavía, está muy enfadado.
I don't dare tell him yet — he's really angry.
Por fin se decidió a hablar con su jefa.
She finally made up her mind to talk to her boss.
Me comprometí a entregar el informe el lunes.
I committed to delivering the report on Monday.
Se dedica a restaurar muebles antiguos en un taller de Toledo.
He restores antique furniture in a workshop in Toledo.
Atreverse a — "to dare to" — is a key verb in everyday speech. No me atrevo (without an infinitive) means "I don't dare," with the action understood from context. Dedicarse a tells you someone's profession or hobby: ¿A qué te dedicas? is the standard Spanish way to ask "what do you do (for a living)?"
Llegar a + infinitive: get to the point of doing
Llegó a ser ministro antes de los cuarenta.
He got to be a minister before he turned forty.
No llegué a verla actuar en directo.
I never got to see her perform live.
Llegar a + infinitive expresses reaching the point of doing something — usually something that took effort or that didn't happen in the end. Llegué a vivir en cinco países distintos — "I ended up living in five different countries." Don't confuse this with the literal llegar a + place (llegué a Madrid).
A bigger reference list
| Verb + a | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ir a | be going to (future) | Voy a salir. |
| venir a | come to | Vine a hablar contigo. |
| salir a | go out to | Salí a pasear. |
| volver a | do again | Vuelvo a leerlo. |
| empezar a | start to | Empezó a nevar. |
| comenzar a | begin to (more formal) | Comenzó a hablar. |
| ponerse a | set about | Me pongo a cocinar. |
| echarse a | burst into | Se echó a llorar. |
| romper a | break into (literary) | Rompió a llorar. |
| llegar a | get to / end up | Llegó a ser presidente. |
| aprender a | learn to | Aprendí a nadar. |
| enseñar a | teach to | Me enseñó a leer. |
| acostumbrarse a | get used to | Me acostumbro a madrugar. |
| ayudar a | help to | Te ayudo a estudiar. |
| invitar a | invite to | Te invito a cenar. |
| animar a | encourage to | Me animó a probar. |
| obligar a | force to | Nos obligan a pagar. |
| forzar a | force to (stronger) | Lo forzaron a salir. |
| atreverse a | dare to | No me atrevo a decírselo. |
| decidirse a | make up mind to | Se decidió a hablar. |
| comprometerse a | commit to | Me comprometo a venir. |
| dedicarse a | devote oneself to | Se dedica a enseñar. |
Decidir vs decidirse a
A nuance worth flagging. Decidir (no preposition, no pronoun) means "decide to" — an internal mental act. Decidirse a (pronominal + a) means "make up one's mind to" — emphasising that the decision took effort or required overcoming hesitation.
Decidí ir a Barcelona en agosto.
I decided to go to Barcelona in August.
Después de mucho pensarlo, me decidí a hablar con ella.
After thinking about it a lot, I made up my mind to talk to her.
This pair is a good example of how the same verb can take different prepositional frames with different meanings. Spanish does this with several verbs (acordar vs acordarse de, parecer vs parecerse a, negar vs negarse a). Worth filing away.
The ir a trap: motion vs future
Ir a + infinitive is famously ambiguous between literal motion ("going somewhere to do X") and periphrastic future ("going to do X"). Context normally disambiguates.
Voy a comprar el pan.
I'm going to buy bread. (most likely physical motion — going out to the bakery)
Voy a estudiar más este año.
I'm going to study more this year. (purely future — no motion implied)
The future reading is the more grammaticalised one, and over time it has hollowed out the original "go to" meaning. When the infinitive is something you can't physically go somewhere to do (estudiar, aprender, pensar), the future reading is the only option.
Common Mistakes
❌ Voy comprar el pan.
Wrong — ir takes a before an infinitive.
✅ Voy a comprar el pan.
I'm going to buy bread.
❌ Empecé estudiar a las ocho.
Wrong — empezar requires a before the infinitive.
✅ Empecé a estudiar a las ocho.
I started studying at eight.
❌ Me ayudó mover el sofá.
Wrong — ayudar requires a.
✅ Me ayudó a mover el sofá.
He helped me move the sofa.
❌ Aprendí cocinar paella en Valencia.
Wrong — aprender requires a.
✅ Aprendí a cocinar paella en Valencia.
I learned to cook paella in Valencia.
❌ No me atrevo decírselo.
Wrong — atreverse takes a.
✅ No me atrevo a decírselo.
I don't dare tell him.
Key takeaways
- A specific list of Spanish verbs requires a before a following infinitive. The a is part of the verb's syntactic frame, not a free choice.
- The verbs cluster semantically into four groups: motion toward an action, initiation, teaching/learning, and commitment/inducement.
- Ir a
- infinitive is the workhorse future of spoken peninsular Spanish; volver a
- infinitive expresses repetition; acabar a does not exist (you want acabar de).
- infinitive is the workhorse future of spoken peninsular Spanish; volver a
- Memorise the verb and its preposition together — there is no semantic rule that picks a over de or en.
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- Infinitivo después de verbos conjugadosA2 — When two verbs share a subject, the second one stays in the infinitive — quiero ir, puedo venir, suelo madrugar — never que, never a conjugated form.
- Verbos seguidos de 'de' + infinitivoB1 — Verbs that demand 'de' before an infinitive — acabar de, dejar de, tratar de, acordarse de — cluster around stopping, completing, remembering, and trying.
- Verbos seguidos de 'en' + infinitivoB2 — A small but high-frequency set of verbs takes 'en' before an infinitive — insistir en, pensar en, tardar en, consistir en — clustered around focus, duration, and absorbing one's attention into an action.
- Futuro perifrástico: ir a + infinitivoA1 — The workhorse future of spoken peninsular Spanish — how to use 'ir a + infinitivo' for plans, intentions, and near-future events.
- Verbos con preposición 'a'B1 — A broad set of Spanish verbs lexically selects 'a' before a complement — ir a, llegar a, jugar a (peninsular), aprender a, invitar a, empezar a — clustered around motion, inception, learning, influence, and games.