Future tenses
In Spanish, there are three tenses of the future. The futuro simple, futuro compuesto and futuro próximo.
Futuro simple
Futuro simple (simple future) is mainly used to express intentions or conjectures for the future.
A distinction is made between the following three use cases:
- Intentions for the future
Example: Mañana ordenaré mi habitación. (Tomorrow I will tidy up my room.)
- Conjectures for the future
Example: No ganará el partido. (He will not win the game.)
- Conjectures for the present
Example: Me imagino que tu habitación todavía estará deordenada. (I imagine your room will still be a mess.)
To conjugate verbs in the future simple, the following endings are used:
Subject | -ar hablar |
-er aprender |
-ir vivir |
---|---|---|---|
yo | hablaré | aprenderé | viviré |
tú | hablarás | aprenderás | vivirás |
él/ella/usted | hablará | aprenderá | vivirá |
nosotros/-as | hablaremos | aprenderemos | viviremos |
vosotros/-as | hablaréis | aprenderéis | viviréis |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | hablarán | aprenderán | vivirán |
However, some Spanish verbs are irregularly conjugated in the simple future. The endings, though, are the same as those of regular verbs. The following cases are distinguished:
- Verbs with „d“ inserted
- Verbs with vowel loss
Subject | poner | salir | tener | valer | venir |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
yo | pondré | saldré | tendré | valdré | vendré |
tú | pondrás | saldrás | tendrás | valdrás | vendrás |
él, ella, usted | pondrá | saldrá | tendrá | valdrá | vendrá |
nosotros/-as | pondremos | saldremos | tendremos | valdremos | vendremos |
vosotros/-as | pondréis | saldréis | tendréis | valdréis | vendréis |
ellos/-as, ustedes | pondrán | saldrán | tendrán | valdrán | vendrán |
Subject | caber | haber* | poder | querer | saber |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
yo | cabré | habré | podré | querré | sabré |
tú | cabrás | habrás | podrás | querrás | sabrás |
él, ella, usted | cabrá | habrá | podrá | querrá | sabrá |
nosotros/-as | cabremos | habremos | podremos | querremos | sabremos |
vosotros/-as | cabréis | habréis | podréis | querréis | sabréis |
ellos/-as, ustedes | cabrán | habrán | podrán | querrán | sabrán |
- Verbs with irregular stem
Subject | decir → dir- | hacer → har- |
---|---|---|
yo | diré | haré |
tú | dirás | harás |
él, ella, usted | dirá | hará |
nosotros/-as | diremos | haremos |
vosotros/-as | diréis | haréis |
ellos/-as, ustedes | dirán | harán |
Futuro compuesto / Futuro perfecto
Futuro compuesto is a Spanish tense that expresses a presumption that an action will already be completed at a certain time in the future.
More rarely, the futuro compuesto is also used for conjectures about actions in the past. The two use cases and an example of each are shown below:
- Conjecture about an action in the past
Example: Habrá golpeado el árbol. (He will have hit the tree.)
- Conjecture that an action will be completed at a certain time in the future
Example: Para entonces ya habré hecho los deberes. (By then I will have done my homework.)
To conjugate verbs in futuro compuesto, you need the simple future forms of the auxiliary verb haber and the participio pasado:
Subject | haber | Participio pasado |
---|---|---|
yo | habré |
hablado aprendido vivido |
tú | habrás | |
él/ella/usted | habrá | |
nosotros/-as | habremos | |
vosotros/-as | habréis | |
ellos/ellas/ustedes | habrán |
You form the participio pasado (past participle) by removing the infinitive ending and adding the suffix -ado to verbs ending on -ar, and the suffix -ido to verbs ending on -er/-ir.
Example:
hablar – hablado
entender – entendido
vivir – vivido
Note that an accent must be placed on the i of the ending -ido if there is a vowel before the ending.
Example: leer – leído
Moreover, some verbs have an irregular participle form and some even have a regular and an irregular one. Some of these verbs can be seen below:
Verb | Participio pasado | |
---|---|---|
irregular | regular | |
abrir | abierto | |
decir | dicho | |
escribir | escrito | |
hacer | hecho | |
imprimir | impreso | imprimido |
freír | frito | freído |
morir | muerto | |
poner | puesto | |
proveer | provisto | proveído |
suscribir | suscrito/suscripto | |
ver | visto | |
volver | vuelto |
Futuro próximo
The future tense with ir + a is a Spanish tense for the future, used mainly in spoken language – instead of the futuro simple. With this tense you express actions in the future or future intentions.
The use cases of Futuro próximo are the following:
- Actions performed immediately after speaking
Example: Ahora voy a dormir. (I am now going to sleep.)
- Actions that will be performed at a later time in the future
Example: A partir de este mes construiré la piscina. (At the end of the month I will build the pool.)
- An intention for the future
Example: Prometo que de ahora en adelante voy a ser más ordenado. (I promise that from now on I will be more orderly.)
To form the futuro próximo, you use the respective form of the verb ir, the preposition a, and the infinitive of the verb that expresses the future action. This form can also be used in other tenses by simply adapting the auxiliary verb ir. For example, intentions that one had in the past can be expressed this way. The formation of the tense is shown below:
Subject | ir | Infinitive | |
---|---|---|---|
yo | voy | a |
hablar aprender vivir |
tú | vas | ||
el/ella/usted | va | ||
nosotros/-as | vamos | ||
vosotros/-as | vais | ||
ellos/ellas/ustedes | van |