"To Go" in Spanish
ir v. irse
Wow. This distinction really messed me up once. It's not that I don't know that 'ir' and 'irse' are
different words with different meanings, but in Costa Rica 'irse' is often avoided, except when involving more
dramatic steps to 'leave' or 'go away'.
Once I was leaving for the U.S. to visit family and I told people "me voy para los Estados". I was initially
really weirded out by their sad responses. I thought, "you'd think I was leaving for good". Well, as it turns out,
that's what everybody thought because I said "me voy", which apparently not only means that I'm leaving, but
that it also implies permanence. I started to get some really corny text messages before I realized what the problem
was. Later on, people told me that you only use 'irse' when it's a matter of permanence.
This confusing situation wasn't brought on by the normal confusion between native speakers and
a non-native speaker, but rather a cultural confusion between rural Costa Ricans and a formal
Spanish speaker. Rural Costa Ricans will often use the least number of words possible to convey their
point. Although conciseness is certainly laudable in communication, the way in which rural people
can shorten their language and still be understood can be very difficult for foreigners. When an
outsider uses more descriptive language, he is normally understood, but in this case, my using
'irse' suddenly changed the meaning of what I was saying.
Anyway, 'irse' is only used to emphasize the permanent "going away" of someone or something.
To just simply leave, say 'voy' and not 'me voy'.
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