Breakdown of ¿Vas a la farmacia o al bosque?
o
or
ir
to go
a
to
al
to the (m)
el bosque
the forest
la farmacia
the pharmacy
Questions & Answers about ¿Vas a la farmacia o al bosque?
Why does the sentence use a la for the pharmacy but al for the forest?
In Spanish, the preposition a meaning to combines with the masculine word for the, which is el, to form the contraction al. Because bosque meaning forest is masculine, a el bosque shrinks into al bosque. However, a does not combine with the feminine word la, so a la farmacia stays as two separate words.
Why do we need the word a before the places?
The preposition a means to. Whenever you use a form of the verb ir to talk about going somewhere, you must use a to connect the verb to your destination.
Where is the word for you in this sentence?
You often do not need to say the subject pronoun like tú because the verb tells you who is doing the action. The verb vas specifically means you go or you are going, so adding tú before it is optional.
Does vas mean you go or you are going?
It means both! In Spanish, the simple present tense covers both general facts and actions happening right now. The single word vas handles both ways we express this in English.
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