The future tense - Easy Learning Grammar Spanish

1   Ways of talking about the future

• In Spanish, just as in English, you can often use the present tense to refer to something that is going to happen in the future.

• In English we often use going to with an infinitive to talk about the immediate future or our future plans. In Spanish, you can use the present tense of ir followed by a and an infinitive.

2   Forming the future tense

• In English we can form the future tense by putting will or its shortened form ’ll before the verb. In Spanish you have to change the verb endings. So, just as hablo means I speak, hablaré means I will speak or I shall speak.

• To form the future tense of regular -ar, -er and -ir verbs, add the following endings to the infinitive of the verb: -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án.

• The following table shows the future tense of three regular verbs: hablar (meaning to speak), comer (meaning to eat) and vivir (meaning to live).

• Note that in the future tense only the nosotros/nosotras form doesn’t have an accent.

3   Verbs with irregular stems in the future tense

• There are a few verbs that do not use their infinitives as the stem for the future tense. Here are some of the most common.

• Note that the verb haber is only used when forming other tenses, such as the perfect tense, and in the expression hay (meaning there is or there are).

• For more information on the Perfect tense and on hay, see The perfect tense.

4   Reflexive verbs in the future tense

• The future tense of reflexive verbs is formed in just the same way as for ordinary verbs, except that you have to remember to give the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se).