The future tense - Easy Learning Grammar Spanish

What is the future tense?
The future tense is a verb tense used to talk about something that will happen or will be true in the future, for example, He’ll be here soon; I’ll give you a call; What will you do?; It will be sunny tomorrow.

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.

Cogemos el tren de las once.	We’re getting the eleven o’clock train.
Mañana voy a Madrid.	I am going to Madrid tomorrow.

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.

Va a perder el tren.	He’s going to miss the train.
Va a llevar una media hora.	It’s going to take about half an hour.
Voy a hacerlo mañana.	I’m going to do it tomorrow.

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).

(yo)	hablaré	comeré	viviré	I’ll speak/eat/live
(tú)	hablarás	comerás	vivirás	you’ll speak/eat/live
(él) (ella) (usted)	hablará	comerá	vivirá	he’ll speak/eat/live she’ll speak/eat/live it’ll speak/eat/live you’ll speak/eat/live
(nosotros/nosotras)	hablaremos	comeremos	viviremos	we’ll speak/eat/live
(vosotros/vosotras)	hablaréis	comeréis	viviréis	you’ll speak/eat/live
(ellos/ellas/ustedes)	hablarán	comerán	vivirán	they’ll/you’ll speak/eat/live

Hablaré con ella.	I’ll speak to her.
Comeremos en casa de José.	We’ll eat at José’s.
No volverá.	He won’t come back.
¿Lo entenderás?	Will you understand it?

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

TipRemember that Spanish has no direct equivalent of the word will in verb forms like will rain or will look and so on. You change the Spanish verb ending instead to form the future tense.

Grammar Extra!In English, we sometimes use will with the meaning of be willing to rather than simply to express the future, for example, Will you wait for me a moment? In Spanish you don’t use the future tense to say this; you use the verb querer (meaning to want) instead.

¿Me quieres esperar un momento, por favor?

Will you wait for me a moment, please?

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.

Verb	Stem	(yo)	(tú)	(él) (ella) (usted)	(nosotros) (nosotras)	(vosotros) (vosotras)	(ellos) (ellas) (ustedes)
decir to say	dir-	diré	dirás	dirá	diremos	diréis	dirán
haber to have	habr-	habré	habrás	habrá	habremos	habréis	habrán
hacer to do/make	har-	haré	harás	hará	haremos	haréis	harán
poder to be able to	podr-	podré	podrás	podrá	podremos	podréis	podrán
poner to put	pondr-	pondré	pondrás	pondrá	pondremos	pondréis	pondrán
querer to want	querr-	querré	querrás	querrá	querremos	querréis	querrán
saber to know	sabr-	sabré	sabrás	sabrá	sabremos	sabréis	sabrán
salir to leave	saldr-	saldré	saldrás	saldrá	saldremos	saldréis	saldrán
tener to have	tendr-	tendré	tendrás	tendrá	tendremos	tendréis	tendrán
venir to come	vendr-	vendré	vendrás	vendrá	vendremos	vendréis	vendrán

Lo haré mañana.	I’ll do it tomorrow.
No podremos hacerlo.	We won’t be able to do it.
Lo pondré aquí.	I’ll put it here.
Saldrán por la mañana.	They’ll leave in the morning.
¿A qué hora vendrás?	What time will you come?

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).

Me levantaré temprano.

I’ll get up early.

Key points

You can use a present tense in Spanish to talk about something that will happen or be true, just as in English.
You can use ir a with an infinitive to talk about things that will happen in the immediate future.
In Spanish there is no direct equivalent of the word will in verb forms like will rain and will look. You change the verb endings instead.
To form the future tense, add the endings -é, -ás, á, -emos, -éis,-án to the infinitive.
Some verbs have irregular stems in the future tense. It is worth learning these.

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