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
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
For the verbs in the following table, the vowel of the infinitive ending is replaced by the letter „d“ in each conjugation.
  • Verbs with vowel loss
Some verbs with the infinitive ending -er lose the vowel of the ending during conjugation. The following table shows these Spanish verbs:
Subject poner salir tener valer venir
yo pondré saldré tendré valdré vendré
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
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
*haber exists in the simple tenses only in the 3rd person singular (form of hay)
  • Verbs with irregular stem
The verbs decir (say) and hacer (do) change their root during conjugation. This change is carried over in each person.
Subject decir → dir- hacer → har-
yo diré haré
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

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

vas
el/ella/usted va
nosotros/-as vamos
vosotros/-as vais
ellos/ellas/ustedes van