visitar

Visitar is a verb used in Spanish and Portuguese that means to go to see someone or something, or to go to a place for a specific purpose. It covers activities such as visiting relatives, sightseeing, or inspecting facilities. As a transitive verb, it takes a direct object referring to the person or the place visited; in Spanish, when referring to people the construction commonly uses the preposition a: visitar a alguien.

In Spanish, you usually say “visitar a” for a person and simply “visitar” for a place: for example, “Voy a visitar a mi abuela” and “Vamos a visitar el museo.” In Portuguese, common forms are “vou visitar minha avó” or “vou visitar o museu.” The verb can denote a casual visit, a tourist stop, or an official or formal visit in various contexts.

Etymology: Visitar derives from the Latin visitare, meaning to go to see, related to visitus (visited) and ultimately linked to videre (to see). The term appears in the romance languages with a consistent meaning of going to see a person, place, or thing.

Conjugation and grammar: Visitar is a regular -ar verb in both languages. Spanish conjugates with standard -ar endings (present: visito, visitas, visita, visitamos, visitáis, visitan; preterite: visité, visitaste, visitó, visitamos, visitasteis, visitaron). Portuguese presents as eu visito, tu visitas, ele visita, nós visitamos, vocês visitam; other forms follow regular -ar patterns.