Vamos arriba ahora.

now

Breakdown of Vamos arriba ahora.

• ir: to go
• arriba: upstairs; up

Questions & Answers about Vamos arriba ahora.

What verb is vamos from, and what form is it?

Vamos comes from ir, meaning to go. It is the nosotros form of the present tense, so grammatically it is we go or we are going.

In everyday Spanish, though, vamos is also very commonly used to urge action, like let’s go or come on. So the same form can work as either a statement or an encouragement, depending on context and tone.

Is vamos here present tense or a command?

Its form is present tense, but its function can be command-like.

Spanish often uses the nosotros present form to express the idea of let’s .... So vamos can act like an exhortation even though it is not a separate imperative form the way English has let’s.

A useful comparison:

• vamos = let’s go / we’re going
• no vayamos = let’s not go

So learners should think of vamos as a form that can do both jobs.

Why is there no subject pronoun like nosotros?