Eu vou ler a carta.

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Breakdown of Eu vou ler a carta.

• ir: to go (future auxiliary)
• ler: to read
• a carta: the letter

Questions & Answers about Eu vou ler a carta.

Why is vou ler used here instead of a single future-tense verb?

In Brazilian Portuguese, ir + infinitive is a very common way to talk about the future, just like going to + verb in English.

So:

• vou ler = I am going to read / I will read

There is also a simple future form:

• lerei = I will read

But in everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, vou ler is much more common and natural.

What does vou mean by itself?

Vou is the first-person singular form of the verb ir, which means to go.

Here is the relevant part of the conjugation:

• eu vou = I go / I am going
• você vai = you go
• ele/ela vai = he/she goes

In eu vou ler, vou is not really about physically going somewhere. It is helping form the future: I am going to read.

Why is eu included? Can Portuguese drop it?

Yes. Portuguese often allows the subject pronoun to be omitted because the verb form already shows who the subject is.

So both of these are correct:

• Eu vou ler a carta.
• Vou ler a carta.

Both mean I am going to read the letter.

Including eu can add emphasis, clarity, or contrast. For example:

• Eu vou ler a carta, não você.
  I am going to read the letter, not you.