Breakdown of Él va al centro muy pronto.
él
he / him (after a preposition)
muy
very
ir
to go
al
to the (m)
el centro
the center
pronto
soon
Questions & Answers about Él va al centro muy pronto.
Why is "is going" translated as just va instead of using a word for "is"?
In Spanish, the simple present tense can often translate directly to the English "-ing" form (the present continuous). Because of this, va can mean "he goes" or "he is going" depending on the context. You don't need a separate verb for "is" here.
Va means "goes", but what is the original infinitive (dictionary) form of this verb?
The infinitive is ir, which means "to go". It is a highly irregular verb, meaning its conjugated forms (like voy, vas, and va) don't look like the original word ir at all! Here, va is the correct form to use for él (he).
Where does the word al come from in al centro?
In Spanish, when the preposition a (to) comes right before the masculine word for "the", which is el, they must squeeze together to form the single word al. Since centro is a masculine noun (el centro), saying "to the center" becomes a + el = al centro.
Why does Él have an accent mark over the E?
The written accent mark is used to tell two identical-sounding words apart. Él (with an accent) means the pronoun "he", while el (without an accent) means the article "the".
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