You Come and You Go
Use viene for polite “you come” and va for polite “you go.” Talk about arrivals and destinations while recycling familiar language from Modules 1–12.
You come: viene
Use viene to say that one person comes or is coming and to ask polite questions about arrival.
One new building block
Spanish often leaves out usted. In this module, viene by itself can mean polite you come.
Build the meaning step by step
Use venir after familiar helper forms
After puede, quiere, or tiene que, use the unchanged form venir.
Puede venir ahora. = You can come now.
You go: va
Use va to say where one person goes or is going and to ask polite questions about a destination.
One new building block
Add the destination with a
a + el joins to become al.
Use ir after familiar helper forms
After puede, quiere, or tiene que, use ir.
Tiene que ir al hotel. = You have to go to the hotel.
Use the new forms in a short exchange
Viene moves toward here; va moves toward there
- Viene describes coming toward the speaker or destination being treated as “here.”
- Va describes going toward another destination.
- After puede, quiere, and tiene que, use venir or ir.
- a + el contracts to al: va al hotel.
Connect arrival and destination
Interpret this without looking back:
Me dice cuándo viene y adónde va.
Module 13 progress
You can now ask and answer simple questions about coming and going while combining these forms with familiar helper verbs.