The Ultimate Guide to Spanish Future Tense

By Annabel Beilby Published: September 19, 2018

6 min read

Learn all about the Spanish future tense with this simple lesson that covers everything you need to know about this tense.

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How to form the future tense Exceptions Trigger Phrases Test Conclusion

“The past, present, and future walked into a bar … it was tense.”

(We claim no credit for that so-bad-it’s-good joke!)

The future tense is obviously very important for—well—talking about the future. Whether you want to talk about your intended future plans or some other inevitability, you’ll need the future tense.

In Spanish there are two common ways of expressing the future. There’s the ‘ir a + infinitive’ version, which is like ‘I am going to …’ but today we’ll be focusing on the slightly trickier version, which is more like ‘I will …’ This will involve learning a few verb endings and, as always, some irregulars!

How to form the future tense

Apart from the irregular ones, the formation of the future tense is pretty simple. All you do is take the infinitive and add on the appropriate ending:

Yo-é
Tú-ás
Él/ella/usted-á
Nosotros-emos
Vosotros-éis
Ellos/ellas/ustedes-án

As well as being used to say what will happen, the future tense can be used in the sense of ordering someone to do something (“you WILL tidy your room”) and in the sense of ‘I suppose it must be the case’ (“she’ll be in her room, I reckon”). Let’s check out some examples of the various uses.

SpanishEnglish
Venderás tu coche.You’re to sell your car.
Podéis ir a la fiesta, pero solo beberéis agua.You can go to the party, but you’ll only drink water.
Serán las ocho.It must be about 8 o’clock.
Estarán en la biblioteca.They are probably in the library.
Iré a la fiesta.I’ll go to the party.
El gato ronroneará si acaricias su lomo.The cat will purr if you stroke his/her/its back.
Ya veremos.We’ll see.
Conoceremos a los chicos.We’ll meet the boys.
Tendréis muchas oportunidades.You will have many opportunities.
Reirán* cuando vean las fotos.They’ll laugh when they see the photos.

*A note about stress/emphasis: the bold letters in the table below show where the stress/emphasis will fall in the future tense.

Yotriunfaré
Tútriunfarás
Él/ella/ustedtriunfará
Nosotrostriunfaremos
Vosotrostriunfaréis
Ellos/ellas/ustedestriunfarán

This doesn’t change, which means that sometimes you’ll have to alter a stem. For instance, when we put reír into the future tense, we remove the accent from the ‘i‘ then add the appropriate ending, so that the stress stays on the bold syllable:

reír → Pancho reirá

reír → Nosotros reiremos

Exceptions

As usual in Spanish, there are exceptions to the rule. These need to be learnt, but luckily it only includes the stems, not the endings. For example, for ‘to want,’ instead of querer + é, we change the stem so we get querr + é.

Here are the main ones:

Spanish infinitive	English infinitive	Stem	Spanish example	English example
caber	to fit	cabr-	Cabrá en el coche.	It will fit in the car.
decir	to say	dir-	Diré algo.	I’ll say something.
haber	to have (not to be confused with tener)*	habr-	Habrá tapas.	There will be tapas.
hacer	to do/to make	har-	Harás la compra.	You will do the shopping.
poder	to be able to	podr-	Podremos ir.	We’ll be able to go.
poner	to put	pondr-	Pondréis en práctica la teoría.	You will put the theory into practice.
querer	to want	querr-	Querrán verte.	They’ll want to see you.
saber	to know	sabr-	Sabré mañana.	I’ll find out tomorrow.
salir	to leave	saldr-	Saldrá pronto.	He will leave soon
tener	to have	tendr-	Tendrás un montón de trabajo.	You’ll have a lot of work.
valer	to be worth	valdr-	Valdrá la pena.	It will be worth it.
venir	to come	vendr-	Vendremos esta noche.	We’ll come tonight.

*When the verb haber is used to mean ‘there is’/’there are’ or ‘there will be,’ it is always left in the singular, even if you’re saying that there are loads of things:

Hay un ordenador .–> There is a computer.

Hay tres ordenadores. –> There are three computers.

Habrá un ordenador. –> There will be a computer.

Habrá tres ordenadores. (NOT habrán) –> There will be three computers.

Trigger Phrases

These time expressions can help you talk about the future, but they do not automatically require the future tense. In expressions such as cuando sea mayor (when I’m older) and en cuanto pueda (as soon as I can), the time clause uses the present subjunctive for an event that has not happened yet. The main clause can use the future: Cuando sea mayor, viajaré más (When I’m older, I’ll travel more).

SpanishEnglish
MañanaTomorrow
Pasado mañanaThe day after tomorrow
El fin de semanaAt the weekend
El domingoOn Sunday
La semana que vieneNext week
En diciembreIn December
La próxima vezNext time
De aquí a cinco añosIn five years’ time
En cuanto puedaAs soon as I can
Cuando sea mayorWhen I’m older
NuncaNever
Un díaOne day

Test

The best way to internalize what you’ve learnt is to put it into practice. Let’s have a go at translating some examples from Spanish to English and vice versa. Use the guide above and the vocab below. Once you’ve made an attempt, click to reveal the answer!

IrTo go
GanarTo win
El partidoThe match
La gentePeople

1. Iré a Puerto Rico el año que viene.

Click to see what it means in English.

I’m going to Puerto Rico next year.

2. Ganaremos el partido.

Click to see what it means in English.

We’ll win the match.

3. Habrá mucha gente.

Click to reveal the correct meaning.

There’ll be lots of people.

Now let’s take it up a notch, and go from English to Spanish …

AlwaysSiempre
To loveAmar
Don’t worry!¡No te preocupes!
Good jobBuen trabajo
To cookCocinar
To voteVotar
ElectionLa elección
To smileSonreír (*remember the note about removing the accent from the stem!)
At the + masculine nounAl
To callLlamar
PoliceLa policía
MoneyEl dinero

4. I’ll always love Pablo.