Translation help

[Craig75]

Hello,

I´m trying to say "I go to eat because I am hungry¨"

I´ve been told this should be written in Spanish as
"Voy a comer porque tengo hambre"

To me this literally says "I go to to eat because I have hunger", is that right. why say "to" twice

and does it have a translation as to what it ACTUALLY means

Thanks in advance.

P.s. I can´t do punctuation as Im between English and Spanish keyboards

[Rusty]

You've probably been taught that the Spanish infinitive is equivalent to the English infinitive. This is only partially true, because English has two forms for the infinitive and the Spanish infinitive is equivalent to only one of them.

We often see the particle 'to' in front of the English infinitive. This is known as the full infinitive (or the to-infinitive). We also have an infinitive form without the particle 'to'.
This form is known as the bare infinitive. The bare infinitive is equivalent to the Spanish infinitive.

When we consult an English language dictionary to look up the meaning of a verb, the entry is always listed as a bare infinitive (without the particle 'to'). We readily accept that we may need to use the infinitive with the particle 'to', but I just used an infinitive in this sentence without the particle.

We use the bare infinitive all the time after the modals 'can', 'must', 'should', 'could', 'might', 'may', 'shall', etc. There are other ways to use the bare infinitive, as well.

You should always learn a Spanish infinitive without including the particle 'to' because, in reality, that particle isn't there. We add the particle in English. We can't add it in Spanish.

Looking at the sentence you gave as an example, the verb 'ir' is always followed by the preposition 'a'. The preposition is translated as 'to'. The infinitive 'comer' is translated as 'eat', not 'to eat'.

In sentences like 'Necesito comer,' the infinitive is not preceded by a preposition, yet the translation into English has to include a full infinitive.

[Craig75]

Rusty.

Acabo de leer literalmente sobre Ir a + el infinitive.

y acabar también

Estoy aprendiendo.

muchos gracias.