va llegando

[ElmerRamone]

Can someone offer some guidance with this? It seems redundant and unnecessary, but is there some rule or circumstances in which this is a preferred phrase? I looked it up in Spanishdict, but they just translate it a lot of different ways and don't offer any explanations for this. Thanks.

[Explorer]

Where did you read this verbal periphrasis? Knowing the context could be of great help.

If there's no other indication I'd translate it as: it's coming or it's arriving.

A couple of examples:

• Our journey is coming to an end: nuestro viaje va llegando a su fin.
• It seems that the good weather is arriving: parece que va llegando el buen tiempo.

[ElmerRamone]

Thanks, Explorer... It was a Duo sentence very much like your examples. What I don't understand is the necessity of the combination when a simpler word would do. And I know that there are many ways of saying the same thing, but I would really like to understand this one. Why 'va' instead of 'está'?

[Explorer]

Why 'va' instead of 'está'?

I think these verbs are often interchangeable in quite a few cases, although that's not always possible.

According to my Spanish grammar, they have a slightly different meaning:

• The periphrasis ir + gerund is used to indicate the slow development of an action, or to describe something that does not happen all of the sudden, but in a progressive way.
  
  
• On the other hand, estar + gerund indicates an action that is happening now, at the moment of speaking.

So you can say: el tiempo está cambiando (right now), or el tiempo va cambiando (because it's the Fall, there are more rainy days, it's colder outside, the leaves are falling, etc.). Both forms are correct and both describe an action that is taking place in the present.

[Cifi]

Here is an explanation and comparison between the two constructions:

https://spanish.kwiziq.com/revision/gra ... -an-action