listo, vamos, vámonos

Question

We all hear Paralee say words and phrases in Spanish while we are watching the educational videos here on SpanishDict.

Por ejemplo: "listo" y "vamos"

I've heard these two before, and when I first heard "listo", I thought that she was randomly saying "smart"!

I finally realized that there are other meanings. I came to the conclusion that she was asking "ready?" in Spanish. I also think that when she says "vamos" that it means "Let's go!". However, that's just a guess. I've never really been told the exact meaning of "vamos" before, I always hear "vámonos".

In the first question I have asked (below), I was wondering if that's the correct way to ask that question, it's how I assumed you would ask it in Spanish. Please correct me! Thanks in advance to everyone who answers my questions!

My questions are:

• 1.Is this the correct way to ask someone the question "Are you ready?" in Spanish? ¿Estás listo?
• 2.What all can "vamos" mean in English?
• 3.What are the differences between these two words? vamos y vámonos
• 4.Is this word considered to be slang? vamos

Great questions! - --Mariana--, Dec 16, 2011

Gracias, Mariana. Normalmente, estoy muy curiosa. :) - 00ec83d7, Dec 16, 2011

Answer 1

• 1) Is this the correct way to ask someone the question "Are you ready?" in Spanish? ¿Estás listo?
• 2) What all can "vamos" mean in English?
• 3) What are the differences between these two words? vamos y vámonos
• 4) Is this word considered to be slang? vamos

1) Not if you are saying it to a female (lista) or more than 1 person (¿Están listos, listas?)

2) Let's go or Let's leave, even though that is more correctly vámonos [ir is the only irregular verb in the nosotros commands, because it uses the indicative mood vamos or vámonos where all other verbs use the subjunctive mood. (However, if negative: No nos vayamos.)

3) Technically, vamos (ir) is more Let's go while the vámonos (irse) is more Let's leave or Let's get out of here., but in actuality they are somewhat interchangeable.

4) No, vamos is actual nosotros command for Ir.

nosotros command

The only exception is the verb ir(se), which uses the present indicative for the affirmative command only.

Muchas gracias, qfreed. :) - 00ec83d7, Dec 16, 2011