Future Tense

Question

Overview

There are two ways to form the future tense in Spanish: the informal future (el futuro informal) and the simple future (el futuro simple).

The Informal Future

The informal future is used mostly in spoken Spanish to express future actions. It is formed by the verb ir (bold) conjugated in the present indicative, the preposition a (italics), and the infinitive of the action to be performed. The loose translation would be that someone "is going to ___|\___|_."

Informal Future Formula

ir + a + infinitive

• Yo voy a viajar por España. (I am going to travel through Spain.)
• Tú vas a cantar. (You are going to sing.)
• Usted va a ser famoso. (You are going to be famous.)
• Él va a montar en monopatín. (He is going to skateboard.)
• Ella va a comprar un coche nuevo. (She is going to buy a new car.)
• Nosotros vamos a cenar a las nueve. (We are going to eat dinner at 9 o´clock.)
• Vosotros vais a jugar al fútbol esta tarde. (You are going to play soccer this afternoon.)
• Ustedes van a estudiar mucho. (You are going to study a lot.)
• Ellos van a dormir en el primer piso. (They are going to sleep on the first floor.)
• Ellas van a bailar. (They are going to dance.)

The Simple Future

The loose translation of the simple future would be that someone "will" or "shall" do something. It is also used to express the possibility of what someone "might" or "may" be doing in the present. The simple future, unlike the informal future, is only one word created by adding endings to the infinitive of a verb. All verb conjugations have the same endings:

Simple Future Verb Endings

é, ás, á, emos, éis, án

Conjugation Examples

	viajar	conocer	escribir
yo	viajaré	conoceré	escribiré
tú	viajarás	conocerás	escribirás
usted, él, ella	viajará	conocerá	escribirá
nosotros	viajaremos	conoceremos	escribiremos
vosotros	viajaréis	conoceréis	escribiréis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	viajarán	conocerán	escribirán

• Yo practicaré mucho español este verano. (I will practice my Spanish a lot this summer.)
• Tú jugarás para el equipo nacional. (You will play for the national team.)
• Ud. vivirá cerca del mercado. (You will live near the market.)
• Él estará hablando con su novia. (He might be talking to his girlfriend.)
• Ella me escribirá una carta cuando llega en México. (She will write me a letter when she arrives in Mexico.
• Nosotros cenaremos en cinco minutos. (We will probably eat dinner in five minutes.)
• Vosotros encontraréis mucha gente en ese club. (You will find a lot of people in that club.)
• Ustedes estarán contentos con este cuadro. (You may be happy with this painting.)
• Ellos llorarán al final de esta película. (They will cry at the end of this movie.)
• Ellas cantarán mi canción favorita. (They will sing my favorite song.)

Irregular Simple Future

The simple future has relatively few irregular verbs which fall into 3 distinct categories:

1. Take off infinitive vowel and add d

The e or i from the infinitive is removed and replaced with the letter d instead.

Conjugation Example

tener (to have)
tendré	tendremos
tendrás	tendréis
tendrá	tendrán

Other Verbs like Tener

poner (pondré), valer (valdré), salir (saldré), venir (vendré)

• Ud. tendrá un profesor bueno en esa clase. (You will have a good professor in that class.)
• Yo pondré el pastel en la mesa. (I will put the cake on the table.)

2. Take off the infinitive vowel

The vowel is removed from the infinitive ending. No letters are added to the stem.

Conjugation Example

poder (to be able to)
podré	podremos
podrás	podréis
podrá	podrán

Other Verbs like Poder

caber (cabré), haber (habré), querer (querré), saber (sabré)

• Tú podrás hablar español muy pronto. (You will be able to speak Spanish very soon.)
• Nosotros querremos visitar muchas ciudades. (We will want to visit lots of cities.)

3. Irregular stems

Some verbs just have irregular stems that must be memorized. Fortunately, there are only two.

Irregular Conjugations

decir (to tell)			hacer (to make/to do)
diré	diremos		haré	haremos
dirás	diréis		harás	haréis
dirá	dirán		hará	harán

• Vosotros diréis el cuento de tu viaje a Argentina. (You will tell your story of your trip to Argentina.)
• Ellos harán el pastel para mamá. (They will make the cake for mom.)

Exercises

Part 1: Complete each sentence by conjugating each verb in parenthesis into the informal future (ir + a + infinitive).

Example: Yo (jugar) al voleibol esta tarde. -> Yo voy a jugar al voleibol esta tarde.

1. Mi profesor (estar) ocupado.
2. Mis amigos (querer) comer pronto.
3. Alicia (salir) de la fiesta.
4. Mi hermana y yo (viajar) a Paraguay este verano.
5. Tú (tocar) la guitarra.

Part 2: Complete each sentence by conjugating each verb in parenthesis into the simple future.

Example: Nosotros (salir) de la casa en 10 minutos. -> saldremos

1. Yo (ir) con vosotros.
2. Ustedes (hacer) su tarea.
3. Jorge (hablar) con su jefe mañana.
4. Que (ser), (ser).
5. ¿Cuánto (ganar) tú este año?

Answers

Part 1

1. va a estar
2. van a querer
3. va a salir
4. vamos a viajar
5. vas a tocar

Part 2

1. iré
2. harán
3. hablará
4. será, será
5. ganarás

• tú jugará(s) cenararémos (why the tilde)? - qfreed Aug 11, 2009
• remove the "100064" - chull Mar 16, 2010
• In the sentence from the informal furture section "Ella va a compar un coche nuevo. (She is going to buy a new car.)" ,you mean comprar, not compar. - rubenr May 25, 2010
• "Ellos van a dormir en el primer piso. (They are going to sleep on the second floor.)" - This should be translated as the first floor, not second. - lawheelock Jun 29, 2010
• Made some corrections. :) - chaparrito Aug 1, 2010
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