Spanish Future Tense
There are two productive future strategies in Spanish, and you'll use both.
Strategy 1: ir a + infinitive
The conversational default. conjugated in the present + a + the infinitive of the action.
| Person | ir + a | + infinitive |
|---|---|---|
| yo | a | |
| a | ||
| / / | a | |
| a | ||
| a | ||
| / / | van a |
- a . (I'm going to eat.)
- a . (You're going to go out tonight.)
- a a México . (We're going to travel to Mexico next year.)
This is what you'll hear most in everyday Spanish. Native speakers use it for near-future plans and casual predictions, just like English speakers reach for "I'm going to" over "I will".
Strategy 2: the inflectional future
A single set of endings attaches directly to the full infinitive - no chopping, no stem extraction. This is unusual for Spanish, where most tenses work off a chopped stem.
| Person | Ending | comer (regular) |
|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | |
| -ás | ||
| / / | -á | |
| -emos | ||
| -éis | ||
| / / | -án |
The same endings work for all three conjugation classes:
- → hablaré, hablarás, hablará, hablaremos, hablaréis, hablarán
- → comeré, comerás, comerá, comeremos, comeréis, comerán
- → viviré, vivirás, vivirá, viviremos, viviréis, vivirán
Note the written accents on every form except nosotros ( is the only one without an accent).
Irregular future stems
Twelve verbs swap the infinitive for an irregular stem. The endings are identical to the regular set.
| Verb | Stem | Yo form | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| tendr- | I will have | ||
| har- | I will do / make | ||
| podr- | I will be able | ||
| pondr- | I will put | ||
| saldr- | I will leave | ||
| vendr- | I will come | ||
| querr- | I will want | ||
| sabr- | I will know | ||
| dir- | I will say | ||
| habr- | I will have (aux) | ||
| valdr- | valdré | I will be worth | |
| cabr- | cabré | I will fit |
Compound verbs inherit the irregular stem: → , → desharé, → propondré.
When to use which
Two rough rules:
- a + infinitive for near-future plans and conversational use. Voy a llamarte mañana. (I'm going to call you tomorrow.)
- Inflectional future for more remote predictions, promises and written / contexts. El presidente hablará a las ocho. (The president will speak at eight.) Te llamaré pronto. (I'll call you soon - a stronger promise than voy a llamarte.)
Native speakers mix the two freely in speech. For exam Spanish, either is grammatical; the inflectional form is the one teachers want to see you can produce.
The future of probability (advanced)
The inflectional future also serves a non-future use: probability or guessing about the present.
- ¿ ? (What time can it be? / I wonder what time it is.)
- . (He must be at home. / He's probably at home.)
This is a Higher-tier construction and gets full coverage on the intermediate Spanish grammar page. Foundation tier just needs to recognise it when reading.
Worked examples
- a . (Tomorrow I'm going to study all day.)
- ¿A a ? (What time are you going to leave?)
- Barcelona. (Next year I'll be living in Barcelona.)
- No . (We won't have time.)
- ¿ a ? (Will you come to the party?)
- . (I'll tell you the truth.)
- . (You'll know the answer soon.)
Common mistakes English speakers make
Chopping the infinitive before adding the inflectional endings: comé instead of , instead of . The Spanish future is the one tense where the full infinitive stays intact. Forgetting the written accents: , not "comere". Trying to regularise the irregular stems: tendr- is right, not "tener-"; dir- is right, not "decir-". And using the inflectional future for casual immediate plans where ir a + infinitive sounds more natural.
See also
- The Spanish conditional page covers the would-tense, which uses the same stems with different endings.
- The intermediate Spanish grammar page covers the future of probability and the future perfect.