To come or to go

Kent W.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

To come or to go

A quiz question asks “vas a venir al cine mañana?”. In English it seems more common to say “are you going to go the movies tomorrow?” (or simply “are you going to the movies tomorrow?”) Any insights into this use of venir instead of ir?

Asked 3 years ago
Marsha C.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Venir is used to indicate the movement of a person to the place where the person speaking is/was or will be.

Kent W.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Marsha, your explanation makes sense. But in this question, it’s not saying the speaker is even going to be there. Another example I just ran across is this: “Ustedes vienen a jugar al golf los martes.” Again, it’s not even implied that the speaker will be playing golf too. Is there any deeper explanation on saying venir in Spanish instead of ir? Or do you think the speaker’s presence is implied more than I’m allowing for?

Kent W. asked:

To come or to go

A quiz question asks “vas a venir al cine mañana?”. In English it seems more common to say “are you going to go the movies tomorrow?” (or simply “are you going to the movies tomorrow?”) Any insights into this use of venir instead of ir?

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