Future Tense (el futuro)

Regular Forms

The future tense is formed by adding the endings below to the infinitive form.

Infinitive +
-é
-ás
-á
-emos
-éis
-án
hablar comer vivir
yo hablaré comeré viviré
tú hablarás comerás vivirás
él/ella/Ud. hablará comerá vivirá
nosotros/as hablaremos comeremos viviremos
vosotros/as hablaréis comeréis viviréis
ellos/ellas/Uds. hablarán comerán vivirán

Irregular Forms

Verbs with an irregular root, but with the same ending as the regular form.

Infinitive Irregular Root
caber cabr-
decir dir-
haber habr-
hacer har-
poder podr-
poner pondr-
querer querr-
saber sabr-
salir saldr-
tener tendr-
Irregular Root +
-é
-ás
-á
-emos
-éis
-án

Note that all verbs that are built from a verb with an irregular root (the ones in the chart above) will maintain that irregularity:

Uses of the Future

We have learned that IR + a + infinitive may be used to express future actions, especially in spoken language. Another alternative is the future tense, which is commonly found in written language. Both constructions are used extensively.

The nice thing about the Spanish future tense is that it corresponds more or less to the English future tense. It is used to express that an action, event, or state will take place in the future.

It also has another use that does not correspond to the way that we use the future tense in English. This use is often referred to as “el futuro de probabilidad” or the future of probability. We will not be learning to produce this function right now, but you will probably come across it in a reading or a video; your instructor will surely use it in class at some point.

Ejemplo(s):
¿Dónde está Katie?
Where is Katie?
Estará en la biblioteca.
She’s probably in the library.