Can I say "Vado a fare" in Italian?

Question

In English, it's normal to say "I am going to do" something. Is that how you talk about the future in Italian, too?

Answer 1

Yes you can absolutely say “vado a fare”! If the action is planned or it is sure that is going to happen you can say for example: “domani vado a fare una passeggiata”, “tomorrow I am going to take a walk”.

This grammatical rule is called ‘Presente pro Futuro’.

Answer 2

This is a common mistake for new students and even for some Italians who have lived many years in an English speaking-country. In Italian, you will use the future tense "I will do" = farò

The closest sentence structure to "I am going to do" is "I am about to do" = che si traduce in Italiano con "Sto per fare"

I hope it helps!

Fabio

Answer 3

To me "Domani vado a fare una passeggiata" suggests you'll go someplace and then go for a walk at that secondary location. I've learned that "Presente pro futuro" is actually using a single verb in the present tense when talking about the future because a word like "domani" or "settimana prossima" gives you a future context. So it's clearer to just say "domani faccio una passeggiata".

Answer 4

The short answer: unfortunately, no, you can't say "vado a fare," "vado a cercare," or "vado a--" anything in Italian.

Instead, to talk about the future the most common tense Italians use is the future simple (in the indicative mode). If you don't know what those words mean, it's okay.

Basically what this means is that if you want to say "I'm going to run," you change the ending of the verb "to go" so it is in the future simple and say "io correrò." The fun part? You don't even have to include the "io," so the phrase "I'm going to run" can be as short as one word: correrò.

There are some irregular verbs, so definitely check out exact conjugations. Just google "Italian future simple" and you'll find a ton of helpful articles!