El va feliz! IR with emotions?!?!

Question

Hello. I was talking to a friend in south america via text today, and sent her a picture of my dog after his trip to the veterinarian. My friend wrote "El va feliz." I understand this means, literally, he goes happy, but that obviously doesnt make a ton of sense to us English speakers lololol.

I said, "El va feliz? Como el parece feliz?" She said, "Parece feliz es una suposicion, va feliz es una afirmacion". Which I guess I get. Kind of, hahaha.

Anyway, does El va feliz indeed means he is happy? If so, how often can I use this construction? voy triste? El va frustrado? Vas guapo?

Thanks for your help, everyone. I hope I made my issue clear-ish. As always, I love posting to this board. Everyone is so helpful!

John

I don't know the answer to your question, but I give you a vote for your nice post. - AnnRon, Aug 27, 2016

Good on you Jim how you going mate all right are you ? - ray76, Aug 28, 2016

Answer 1

It does indeed mean that he is happy, although it sounds very clunky to me.

I'm not sure if it is correct Spanish, so I would not recommend you to use it. I think it comes from the expression "ir feliz por la vida" ("going happy through life", does that make sense?).

You could also hear "él anda feliz", which comes from a similar expression: "andar feliz de la vida." (I can't properly transtale this one, sorry, but it means "being happy about your life"). I wouldn't recommend you to use this one either but you need to know that it also means "he's happy".

It is a very interesting question, I hope somebody comes with a clearer answer. I'm a native Spanish speaker but that doesn't mean I'm an expert.

Good luck!

Thank you for your contribution. I rather thought that this was a very particular expression and not general usage. There are phrases in English that only have one usage and cannot be generalized. - Jubilado, Aug 28, 2016

I agree about "ir + adjective" as being clunky, maybe it's regional. It Mexico "andar + adjective" is very common - 005faa61, Aug 28, 2016

Answer 2

If you go to this dictionary link

ir

and scroll down till you get to ir apañado you will see other examples in Spanish where ir is like estar. I really don't think (from the example for ir bien , that you can just substitute ir for estar, but there are similarities.

I hope a native speaker will clarify this.

Answer 3

As said, it's more idiomatic to find this as él anda feliz.

What's andar? Walk? Go? Well, there's no translation for this in English. This verb has different connotations, and when used it means some kind of a state.

It's anyhow related to be like estás feliz.
Whenever andar is followed by an adjective, it expresses a state: anda contento, anda triste, anda bien, etc.
If movement is implied, it's similar when saying go: anda en mi auto, anda a pie, anda en bicicleta, etc.