When do you use vaya and when do you use voy?
Vaya al Cafe. Voy al cafe. Do they mean the same thing? When do you use one or the other?
I am having the same problem with Dobla and Doble. Also Siga and Sigue.
Doble a la izquierda, Siga detecho, Double a la derecha
El taxi dobla a la izquierda, digue derecho, dobla a la derecha.
8 Answers
Vaya is in the subjunctive mood and has many specific uses, but is mainly used by the speaker to express their feelings on a subject. It is also used as a formal command. For more on the subjunctive, read link text. Voy is the first person present indicative tense of ir. Indicative and subjunctive are two different moods and are used differently and at different times. For example, with vaya you would say, "Espera que vaya a la fiesta" (He hopes I go to the party) but with voy you could say, "Voy a la fiesta" ( I go to the party). Subjunctive is a rather difficult tense to get used to since English rarely uses it.
The same thing applies with your confusion between doble and dobla, as well as sigue and siga. Both doble and sigue are formal commands in your case, which is conjugated the same as the subjunctive. You are telling a person formally to do something, although that person might choose not to do it, hence the subjunctive. The latter is the indicative, a statement of fact that you are sure happened.
Sorry if this was a bit confusing. Hope it helps.
You are telling a person formally to do something, although that person might choose not to do it, hence the subjunctive.
I think you are stretching the logic here. The imperative and subjunctive moods are separate. I don't believe that the fact the formal, imperative and negative, familiar imperative have the same ending as some subjunctive verbs links them to the subjunctive mood meaning. Why, then, does the affirmative, informal, command have nothing in common with the subjunctive. It uses indicative verb endings. Does that somehow link the affirmative, informal command meaning to the indicative mood for making declarations.
The present tense subjunctive is formed using the 1st person, singular, present tense, indicative stem. Does that link the present subjunctive meaning to the meaning of the 1st person, present tense, indicative?
The imperfect subjunctive is formed using the 3rd person plural preterite, indicative verb stem. Does that link the meaning of the imperfect subjunctive to the meaning of the preterite, indicative?
etc., etc.
The endings do follow patterns. The present tense subjunctive is formed from present, tense indicative.
Imperfect (past) subjunctive is formed from the preterite (past) indicative. But the pattern stops there. Meanings aren't linked. Likewise, I don't think that the meaning of the formal imperative (negative informal) derives any shared meaning with the subjunctive, just because of common verb endings.
It just happens that the subjunctive mood has a form of volition as does the imperative mood, but they aren't linked to each other in meaning by verb endings. If they were, why would emotional responses, doubt, probability, etc. share the same verb endings as the formal imperative. They aren't linked in meaning.
When do you use vaya and when do you use voy? do you use vaya :en las 3a personas del singular ejemplo deja que ella,(el) vaya al paseo.y se refiere al futuro del verbo ir. 2a persona del singular vaya usted mismo y reclame el carro. when do you use voy Se utiliza para la 1a persona del singular (yo) ejemplo yo voy a llamar al colegio, Quien va a ir a recoger el helado? yo voy.
I'm sorry, but as my screen name implies, Nu2Spanish. I mean really new! I have no clue what you are trying to tell me.
You are right - a lot of concepts were thrown into the answers that were provided. I would suggest you go to the Reference section and review the Grammar section. It gives a great deal of info on moods and tenses in Spanish (so you know what the heck people mean by Subjunictive, Imperative, etc.).
(You can find the Reference section on the top of the page under the More button. When you open the Reference page, click on Spanish Verbs. I included a link here link textas well.)
Good Luck.
Taken as written, I would interpret "Vaya al cafe." as a command - the imperative that others have described here. "Go to the cafe." Maybe someone implied "espero que...", which would indicate "vaya" used as the subjunctive ("I hope you go to the cafe."), but there is no context here to suggest that.
I would like to add the following: There is a difference between tu and usted. Both can only be translated to the same word in English: you. But they may have different connotations. I know in Colombia they like to use usted when they talk to just about anybody. In Mexico, we use usted only to show respect to older people. We rather use tu to speak to familiar people such as our friends and relatives. But then you go to Argentina, and they like to use vos instead of tu, but we'll ignore that for this post.
When I read the original post from Nu2Spanish I thought that it was a confusion between tu and usted. Here are some examples:
[Usted] vaya al café. [Yo] voy al café.
[Tu] dobla a la derecha en la siguiente cuadra. [Usted] doble a la izquierda en dos cuadras más.
[Usted] siga al carro rojo de enfrente. [Tu] sigue al camión gris que va por allá.
All of the above except for the yo are commands you give to others. I'm a native speaker but have no formal Spanish education. I'm not familiar with the technical names to describe the above. But that would be the only way I would understand how those verbs are conjugated. Hope this helps. If anybody knows I've made mistakes please correct me.
psyche did it. So to make it more simple, "yo vaya" = "I would go" and "yo voy" = "I go"
I'm sorry, but as my screen name implies, Nu2Spanish. I mean really new! I have no clue what you are trying to tell me.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer, even if I did not understand what you were talking about. It was still nice of you to take the time.
