Question 1

Why is it vayamos instead of vamos?

Accepted Answer

Vayamos is the present subjunctive form of ir (to go) for "we". You need the subjunctive here because the first part of the sentence expresses a desire or request about someone else (quiere que). Ir is irregular in the subjunctive, so instead of just swapping vowels, the whole stem changes to vay-.

Question 2

In English we say "wants us to go". Why does the Spanish sentence use que (that)?

Accepted Answer

Spanish does not use the pattern "wants someone to do something". Whenever a person wants someone else to do an action, you must use quiere que (wants that) followed by a conjugated verb. Literally, the sentence says, "The lady wants that we go to the embassy today."

Question 3

Where is the word for "us" or "we" in the Spanish sentence?

Accepted Answer

It is built right into the verb! The ending on vayamos tells you it means "we go". Because the verb ending makes the subject completely clear, Spanish speakers usually drop the pronoun nosotros.

Question 4

Why do we use a right after vayamos?

Accepted Answer

The verb ir (to go) and all its forms, like vayamos, are almost always followed by the preposition a (to) when you are talking about heading to a destination, which in this case is la embajada (the embassy).

La señora quiere que vayamos a la embajada hoy.

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