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I'm trying to say the phrase

"In two years I think I will work in a lab".

I've been playing around with my spanish book and I've come up with the phrase

"En dos años creo voy a trabajo en un laboratorio."

But I'm not sure this is the correct usage of ir a syntax. My thinking that this is correct is because voy a means "going to" and then work in a lab.

I've never been here before and I'm just picking up the language, so thanks for any and all feedback.

Here is the context of the entire paragraph.

En la Universidad, mi especialización es la química. Me gusta la química porque es interesante. Las clases son difíciles, pero la tarea es fácil. En dos años creo voy a trabajo en un laboratorio.

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  • The phrase is, in structure, correct. But there are grammar mistakes, check the conjugation!!
    – Jose Luis
    Jul 15, 2015 at 7:22

2 Answers 2

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While you are correct when you say voy means going to, it's odd to translate it like that when there is no actual going to in your original sentence.

A better approach would be:

En dos años creo que trabajaré en un laboratorio.

Also remember that in English you use will to change a verb to its future tense, so in this case it should also change in your Spanish translation, hence changing trabajar for trabajaré, voy a of course, doesn't require this step as it happens with going to in English as well.

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    This answer is correct. As side note, if you were translating In 2 years I'm going to work in a lab it would be like En 2 años voy a trabajar en un laboratorio; however, the most used form in spanish would be En 2 años estaré trabajando en un laboratorio (In 2 years I will be working in a lab). Jul 15, 2015 at 8:43
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    Agreed with this one. and with the comment above me
    – JesusS
    Jul 20, 2015 at 8:05
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The correct construction would be "voy a trabajar" (tú vas a trabajar, ella va a trabajar, etc.)

The periphrastic future is "Ir a" + infinitive. The only one you needed to conjugate was the "ir", the infinitive is left invariable for all persons.

Also, "creer" needs a "que" when a clause follows.

Thus, "creo que voy a trabajar en un laboratorio".

Edit: user1676874 makes a fair point, I took for granted this was the construction you wanted to use but forgot about warning you about the levels of certainty.

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