Using future tense of 'ir' in conversation

Portuguese Questions Verbs
#1

Hi,

I used ‘irei’ and ‘iremos’ in a conversation with someone the other day (referring to “I am going tomorrow” and “We will go tomorrow”) and it became clear to me that they were perplexed. Confident it wasn’t my pronunciation I have since been told that the future tense of ‘ir’ is mainly for writing purposes and people tend to use the present indicative of ‘ir’ in general conversation, such as “Vou / Vamos amanhã” - I / We go tomorrow.

I’d be interested to know if this is the case? Or perhaps it’s just here in the north where this is more prominent??

Thanks

Barrie.

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#2

Olá, @Barrie. That person is right and what they said is true for pretty much the whole country :slight_smile: In casual conversation, using future tense conjugations is uncommon for any verb. We’d rather just use the present tense with a future intention (which is clear in context) or use this combination: ir as auxiliary verb (in the present tense) + infinitive form of the main verb.

You’ll find a detailed explanation right here: Talking About the Future in Portuguese

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#3

Arrghhhhhhh! Of course. How did I not recall this!!??!! :crazy_face:

Thank you Joseph.

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