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Questions & Answers about El domingo iremos juntos a votar y meteremos la boleta en la urna.
Why is El domingo used instead of just domingo?
In Spanish, days of the week used as adverbial expressions of time normally take the definite article el when referring to a specific occurrence. If you drop el, it sounds incomplete. For habitual actions you use los domingos (“on Sundays”), but for a one-time upcoming Sunday you say el domingo. You can also say este domingo (“this Sunday”) to emphasize immediacy, but el domingo is perfectly natural.
Why are the verbs iremos and meteremos in the simple future tense? Can’t we just say vamos a votar?
Spanish has two common ways to talk about the future:
- The simple future (é, ás, á, emos, éis, án) as in iremos and meteremos. It often feels more formal or decisive.
- The periphrastic future (ir a
- infinitive) as in vamos a votar. This is very common in speech for near-future plans.
Both are correct here. If you prefer a more colloquial tone you could say El domingo vamos juntos a votar y meter la boleta en la urna.
Could I say votaremos juntos instead of iremos juntos a votar? How do they differ?
Yes, you can. Votaremos juntos means “we will vote together,” focusing on the act of voting itself. Iremos juntos a votar literally means “we will go together to vote,” which adds the nuance of traveling together to the polling station. Use whichever nuance you want: just the voting action or the trip plus the action.
Where should juntos go in the sentence? Can its position change?
Juntos is an adverb here (meaning “together”), and Spanish is flexible with its placement. All of these are correct:
- Iremos juntos a votar…
- Iremos a votar juntos…
- Iremos a votar y juntos meteremos… (less common)
Moving it can shift emphasis slightly—placing it before the verb stresses the togetherness of the action, while at the end it sounds more neutral.
Why is meteremos conjugated instead of keeping meter as an infinitive after y?
In the original sentence you have two independent clauses joined by y:
1) Iremos juntos a votar
2) meteremos la boleta en la urna
Each clause needs its own conjugated verb in the future tense. If you tried to use one verb with two infinitives (under ir a), you’d say Iremos a votar y a meter la boleta en la urna, which is grammatically OK but makes both actions subordinate to “we will go.” Using two future verbs highlights each step equally.
What’s the difference between boleta and papeleta?
In Latin America, boleta is the standard word for a voting “ballot.” In Spain you’ll more often hear papeleta. Both refer to the piece of paper you mark and drop into the box; regional preference is the only real difference.
Why do we say meter la boleta en la urna? Could we use poner or depositar instead of meter?
Yes, you could say poner la boleta en la urna or the more formal depositar la boleta en la urna, but meter is the most colloquial verb for “to insert” or “to put inside” in this context. It’s the typical collocation: native speakers say meter la boleta.
What exactly is an urna? Can I say urna electoral?
An urna is the ballot box into which voters drop their ballots. Adding electoral (urna electoral) is not wrong—it just specifies “electoral ballot box,” but in most contexts urna alone is understood to mean the voting box.
Why do la boleta and la urna have the definite article la? In English we might drop “the” sometimes after verbs.
Spanish uses definite articles more consistently than English, especially with specific, known items. Here you’re referring to the particular ballot and box you’ll use, so you say la boleta and la urna. Omitting the article (meter boleta en urna) would sound ungrammatical.
Why is y used to connect meteremos instead of e?
In Spanish, the conjunction y becomes e only before words that start with the “i” sound (IPA [i]) to avoid cacophony, as in padre e hijo. Since meteremos starts with an “m” sound, the standard y is used here.