Future Tense in Spanish

Question

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Hola, could someone please help me with this? I'm learning about the Spanish future. I know how to use the informal future for example voy a ir de compras. For the simple future (I think this is right) you use it to describe what will/shall happen or the possibility of what someone might or may be doing. So I understand this but could someone explain where you couldn't use it because I can't seem to understand it. Online it says that you wouldn't for use it for actions that are certain in the future but why can i say things like -I will go to the shops tomorrow-? Does this not count as certain? Really sorry if I'm missing out something obvious -my Spanish isn't great Thanks

We have members learning English , please begin your sentence with something other that "hey' which is quite inappropriate. - ray76, May 29, 2015

"than" - ray76, May 29, 2015

Answer 1

When I was in Bolivia I noticed that almost always the

"ir (conjugated) + a + verb (infinitive)" was used.

This makes all verb future tenses easier to use because you only have to learn IR..

In English there are 7 ways of indicating a future use - including "going to".

The difference between the simple future

"I will do it"

and

"I am going to do it"

is that that latter is a planned action and the former is really only a prediction unless the "will" is emphasised like this "I will do it."

I am not sure if the same can be said about Spanish.

Gracias- It's really helped -If I was talking about going on holiday can I not use the future tense to say Visitaremos la Catedral y iremos a Disneyland as it's something I'm planning to do? Would I say vamos a visitar? - BonitaChica101, May 29, 2015

Also do you know how I could you the future tense (prediction one) when talking about things like holidays. Since you can't you is for a planned action would it be ok to say "We will visit.... if we have time" - - BonitaChica101, May 29, 2015

Yes that would be correct. But "We are going to visit ... if we have time" = "we plan to visit" is also good. - ian-hill, May 29, 2015

Gracias! :D - BonitaChica101, May 29, 2015

Answer 2

What is the informal future? I never heard about it.

As in English, in Spanish there are two ways to form the indicative future:

-Going to: As LuisCache said, in Spanish is "ir (conjugated) + a + verb (infinitive)"

I am going to watch the footbal match tomorrow

Voy a ver el partido mañana

This way is the same in booth languages, so it shouldn't get you any problem

-Will: This is the simple future and it is different in Spanish. In this case you have to conjugate the verb in the future form:

Peter will do the job

Pedro hará el trabajo

In Spanish, most of times both tenses are interchangeable, so you can use it at your own. But it is true that the first one is commonly used when you have planned to do something.

I always learn from you. :) - rac1, May 29, 2015

:) - ian-hill, May 29, 2015

I think folk, including me, do tend to regard the 'ir + a' form as informal because it usually isn't shown on formal verb tables, including those on this forum... - Faldaesque, May 29, 2015

...which I don't understand. It should really appear as a compound tense. - Faldaesque, May 29, 2015

I'm not sure if I learnt this "verbal tense" at the school but I think i didn't. However, probably it is the most used future tense in Spain. - txustaboy, May 29, 2015

Answer 3

Hi, BonitaChica, I really don't know where all those strange rules come from! I've never heard it!

Actually, I don’t trust those rules that aren't based on grammar rules.

That said, I think you can use "ir a" + infinitive to express that some action will occur in the future.

¿Vas a ir de compras?

Sí, voy a ir de compras.

Tal vez vaya a ir de compras...

Gracias-I get that but what about the simple future ? - BonitaChica101, May 29, 2015

Gracias, Luis. :) - rac1, May 29, 2015