Do native speakers ever vaguely says "I will?"

Question

(when referring to an actual action)

For example, if i wanted to say "i will" when referring to "i will go" or "i will think" etc.

would i say:

a) "lo haré" or is this necessary: b) "yo iré"/"pensaré"

or is there a degree of formality between the two? or does it depend on the verb?

muchas gracias!

Welcome to the forum, please remember to capitalise the word I in English :) - MaryMcc, Nov 14, 2011

Thanks "marymcc!" It was a simple mistake, similar to how you just misspelled "capitalize!' haha funny how we are quick to criticize! - nicsmart21, Nov 14, 2011

hahah - capitalise is British English, capitalize is American - jz900, Nov 14, 2011

Haha really?! Thats so cool, I never knew.. - nicsmart21, Nov 14, 2011

¡Hola!, Nicsmart. I suggest you will enjoy this entry made recently by Mary McC. As between British and American, paste this URL into your browser ----> http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/209057/to-the-citizens-of-the-united-states-of-america- - Moe, Nov 14, 2011

Answer 1

It depends on the verb. "Lo haré" would never be used in the context of going somewhere, but it is used in other contexts, ie: "Quiero que usted repare mi coche hoy mismo" answer "Así lo haré."

And yes, there is a certain amount of formality involved in the use of future as opposed to present tense when talking about future action.

"Me voy a ir" can still be made more simple and slightly less formal by simple present tense, ie: "Mañana me voy."

Answer 2

It probably depends but my husband is from El Salvador and he never uses the future tense, only the simple future- "Me voy a ir." I do think that el futuro is more formal and not used nearly as commonly as in English.

thanks!! - nicsmart21, Nov 14, 2011

Answer 3

Because the future is expressed by inflecting the verb (or with the periphrastic "voy a ..."), there is no general-purpose way to say "I will" without expressing the underlying verb. In English (in informal conversation) we simply supply the missing verb based on the context (preceding utterances) but that's because we use a helping verb to express the future. In Spanish there is no helping verb (for the future).

"Lo haré" (capitalization supplied) means "I will do it." This is a perfectly acceptable grammatical construction but only makes sense if the underlying verb (to describe the action) was "hacer". In response to the question "¿Te vas?", "Lo haré." makes no sense. However, in response to the question "Vas a hacer este trabajo?", "Lo haré" is quite reasonable (although I'd say "Sí, lo haré."

The same is true of other helping/modal verbs in English (which we use with abandon to abbreviate our utterances). The "I do." of the English wedding ceremony (if translated as, simply, "Hago.") only leads to the question "Do what?" for the Spanish speaker.