Remember the classic song, ¡Qué será, será! ? "What will be, will be!" Well, this is the Future tense in Spanish! The Future tense is very user friendly:
There is only one set of Future tense endings,
regardless if the verb is an -Ar or -Ir or -Er.
Yo |
Tú |
Él, ella, usted |
Nosotros* |
Vosotros |
Ellos, ellas, Uds. |
| é |
ás |
á |
emos |
éis |
án |
*
Note: all endings carry an accent mark EXCEPT for the Nosotros form.
We make the Future tense by adding one of the above
endings to the Infinitive itself (this also is the exact same process we use with the Conditional.)
For example, let's look at Comer:
| Comeré a las ocho. |
I will eat at eight o'clock. |
| Comeremos en el restaurante Habana el viernes. |
We'll eat at Habana Restaurant on Friday. |
Pretty easy, huh?
There are a couple of irregulars in the Future tense, and these same verbs will follow
the same pattern in the Conditional.
Irregular root |
Yo |
Tú |
Él, ella, usted |
Nosotros |
Vosotros |
Ellos, ellas, Uds. |
| Decir:
dir- |
diré |
dirás |
dirá |
diremos |
diréis |
dirán |
| Tener: tendr- |
tendré |
tendrás |
tendrá |
tendremos |
tendréis |
tendrán |
| Poner: pondr- |
pondré |
pondrás |
pondrá |
pondremos |
pondréis |
pondrán |
| Poder: podr- |
podré |
podrás |
podrá |
podremos |
podréis |
podrán |
| Salir:
saldr- |
saldré |
saldrás |
saldrá |
saldremos |
saldréis |
saldrán |
| Hacer: Har- |
haré |
harás |
hará |
haremos |
haréis |
harán |
| Haber: Habr- |
habré |
habrás |
habrá |
habremos |
habréis |
habrán |
| Venir: Vendr- |
vendré |
vendrás |
vendrá |
vendremos |
vendréis |
vendrán |
We use the Future Tense to express "will
do something":
| Viviré en California el próximo
verano. |
I will live in California next summer. |
| Irás a la playa cada día. |
You will go to the beach every day. |
| Buscaremos conchas. |
We will look for seashells. |
We also use the Future to express Conjecture
("I wonder") and Probability:
| ¿Qué hora será? |
I wonder what time it is? |
| ¿Estarán casados Barbie y Ken? |
I wonder if Barbie and Ken are married? |
- Note: the Future Tense does not reflect the
meaning of "will" in terms of your "willingness" to do something.
As you know, you can also use the Ir
+ a + Infinitive to express Future actions and events:
| Voy a tomar el sol en la playa el viernes. |
I'm going to sunbathe on the beach on Friday. |
or even the Present Tense can be used:
| Salgo a las cinco. |
I'm leaving at five o'clock. |
