Simple future vs Formal future

Question

Is it more common to use the simple future of formal future (Indicative mood) And does anyone know if it varies in different countries?

Answer 1

Our lesson uses these terms:

http://www.spanishdict.com/guide/simple-future-regular-forms-and-tenses

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

If the above is what you speak of, then the "ir a" is the more common in my experience, but in my experience they have different nuances.

To me the "ir a" future is a clear statement of what is going to happen. Or the more proximate future. But a little more of a given than the other.

Voy a viajar a Italia en dos meses. I am going to travel to Italy in two months. I have the tickets, the itinerary is set, the hotels are booked.

Iré a Italia algún día. I will go to Italy some day. I don't know how I will pull it off, but it will happen, I will make it happen.

This greater uncertainty with the standard, simple indicative future can be seen when you use it for the present.

¿Quién está tocando a la puerta? Será mi madre, la espero. Who is that knocking on the door (right now, at this moment)? It is (will be/must be) my mother, I am expecting her. I am really not sure who it is, but who else could it be.

This is my opinion as a learner, please also await other input, as there is a lot of subtlety here, and in many cases either will work.

I do not know of variation between countries (I can speak to variation between present perfect and simple past in such a case, so I know uses of tenses can vary, but I have no knowledge of it with these specific tenses).

I see I made an error, I did mean informal future. Thank you for your explanation. I recently learned the two different version of the future tense and was using them both as if they were interchangeable. I now see the nuances. - aliciaderuijter, Jan 1, 2017

But keep in mind, in many cases they are interchangeable. But the "ir a" is a bit more matter of fact. :) - bosquederoble, Jan 1, 2017

Answer 2

In college Spanish textbooks, the "Ir+a" construction is called the near future

Bosque gave some examples in his post. It corresponds to the English "going to" + verb.

He is going to sing. El va a cantar.

The other tense is simply called ?? TA DA?? "The future tense.

It is formed by adding the set of future tense endings to the infinitive.

é, ás, á, emos, éis, an. El cantará, " He will sing.

These tenses are used almost exactly the way they are used in English.

There are a few irregularities, where there is an irregular future stem.

Tener (stem-tend-) decir (stem-dir-)_ Hacer (stem-har-) plus five or six others.

There are other uses of the "future tense" Which I will not cover here. Unless you get back to me and ask me about it.

Buena suerte.

Thanks for the explanation. I am still in that phase where I am not sure whether I can use certain Spanish grammatical constructs the same way as I would do in English. I am intrested in the other uses of the future tense. - aliciaderuijter, Jan 1, 2017