'ir' and 'vamos' in one sentence

Question

I am studying Spanish with the Michel Thomas' Method. It lists the following:

We will go see it. / Vamos a ir a verlo.
We will go / Iremos
We will go see it. / Iremos a verlo.

For the first example, why is ir used? Thought ir means to go and vamos a means we will go.
So by using them both, isn't that saying

We will go go and see it

Could someone explain why both ir and vamos are used in the same sentence?

Answer 1

ir plays triple duty, being used to construct the periphrastic future, to indicate motion, and occasionally to construct nosotros_/as commands. Only two of these three are mutually exclusive, so we get two potential interpretations with vamos a ir a ver.

The first ir can either set up the future or, thanks to being specifically the form vamos (a shortened form of vayamos), it can also substitute as a command, equivalent to English's “let’s…”.

In either case, the second ir expresses the actual action which is to go.

You might be think that since both irs are followed by a that they are both expressing future and that your main verb is ver, but just because something is ir a [verbo] doesn't mean it's a periphrastic future construction.

Consider:

Vamos a tomar el metro para poder llegar al cine para ver la película

Vamos a tomar el metro para ir al cine para ver la película.

Vamos a ir en metro al cine para ver la película.

Vamos a ir al cine a ver la película.

Vamos a ir a ver la película

Iremos a ver (future sense)
Vayamos a ver (command sense)

The a is really a para in disguise showing purpose, but not necessarily temporality.

Answer 2

we will go see it is translated as iremos a verlo.

vamos a ir a verlo is translated as the following forms:

let's go see it.

we're going to go see it.

vamos and ir are different. To use vamos we usually use let's go... or we're going... depending of how we want to express ourselves.

Answer 3

The Present Tense in Spanish is remarkable as it can be used to express things in the Present, Past and Future.

One such format by which to express a future event using the Present Tense is:

"Ir(conj.) + a + Infinitive"

such as

  "Voy a leer mio libro."
   I am going to read my book.

Your example expression:

  "Vamos a ir a verlo."

is using this format by which the Present Tense 'vamos', we are going/we go, is being used to express something that will be done in the future 'a verlo'... to see it.

  We are going(will be going)  to see it.

We are going is Present Tense but it's talking about the Future.

There is a similar format by which the Present Tense can be used to talk about a recent past event with the format:

 "Acabar de + Infinitive"

such as:

 "Acabo de escribir mi respuesto."
  I just finished writing my answer.

Fun.