The Spanish Simple Future: Regular and Irregular Forms
The Spanish Simple Future: Regular and Irregular Forms
In this lesson, you will form the Spanish simple future and use it to refer clearly to later events. The form is built from the infinitive or an irregular future stem plus one set of endings. Uses involving conjecture about the present are reserved for later study.
One set of future endings
| Subject | Ending | Hablar — to speak |
|---|---|---|
| -é | — I will speak | |
| -ás | — you will speak | |
| / / | -á | — he / she / you formal will speak |
| / | -emos | — we will speak |
| / | -éis | — you all will speak |
| / / | -án | — they / you all will speak |
Except for -emos, the endings carry a written accent.
Regular verbs keep the complete infinitive
Add the same endings directly to -AR, -ER, and -IR infinitives.
- — I will work
- — you will eat
- — he / she will live
- — we will travel
- — you all will learn
- — they will leave
is irregular in its stem and is explained below.
Regular example with a clear future time
— Tomorrow I will work from home.
— Next Saturday we will visit my grandparents.
— In two weeks they will finish the project.
Common irregular future stems
| Infinitive | Future stem | Example |
|---|---|---|
| — to say / tell | dir- | — I will say / tell |
| — to do / make | har- | — you will do / make |
| — to be able to | podr- | — he / she will be able to |
| — to put | pondr- | — we will put |
| — to want | querr- | — you all will want |
| — to know | sabr- | — they will know |
| — to leave | saldr- | — I will leave |
| — to have | tendr- | — you will have |
| — to come | vendr- | — he / she will come |
The endings stay the same with irregular stems
- — I will have
- — you will have
- — he / she will have
- — we will have
- — you all will have
- — they will have
Use explicit future reference while learning the form
- — Tomorrow I will have more time.
- — On Monday we will leave at eight.
- — Next month my friends will come.
- — In one year I will know more Spanish.
Pronouns stay before the conjugated future verb
- — I will call you tomorrow.
- — I will tell it to him / her / them this afternoon.
- — They will help us on Monday.
Negative future
Put no before the verb.
- — I will not work on Sunday.
- — They will not come tomorrow.
Questions in the future
- — Will you come tomorrow?
- — What will you do this weekend?
- — What time will you all leave?
Form before function
The same future form can participate in several discourse functions. In this lesson, use it for straightforward later-time reference. The next lessons compare plans, promises, predictions, and alternative future expressions.
Do not use this lesson to infer present-time conjecture
At this stage, Será... should be interpreted through clear future context when it appears as the target form. The special use of the future for conjecture about the present belongs to later study.
A practical future-formation method
- Start with the infinitive for a regular verb.
- Use the irregular future stem for common irregular verbs.
- Add -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, or -án.
- Write the required accent marks.
- Match the ending to the subject.
- Use a clear future-time expression while practicing the basic form.
- Keep object pronouns before the conjugated future verb.
From Future Forms to Future Functions
You can now conjugate the simple future and refer to later events. The next lesson teaches you to distinguish plans, promises, and predictions from the surrounding context rather than from verb form alone.