Most Spanish courses for foreign learners focus on the present tense before then moving on to the past tenses. It is not uncommon for even early intermediate students to have avoided learning much about Spanish’s future tenses. There are a couple of good reasons for this. The past tenses tend to be harder to learn, and in the early phases of learning a language we are most often learning how to express ideas about ourselves and our experiences. With Spanish having more than one past tense to master, being able to distinguish between them and use the correct one is a foundational skill for any learner. Another reason that learning the future tense is not always a priority is that it is possible to express almost anything about the future in Spanish without ever using the future tense! However, it is still worth understanding the various different ways we can talk about the future and the subtle differences between their meanings, even if only so that we recognize and understand them when they are used by native speakers.

The Easy Way: Using the Present Tense Ir

The first way most people learn to talk about the future is to use the present tense verb Ir, to go, followed by the preposition a and then the infinitive form of the verb related to the future action being described (such as nadar - to swim). This functions in exactly the same way as in English, where we might say ‘I am going to swim’. There is no need to conjugate the verb ‘to swim’ as the conjugation of ‘to go’, while being in the present tense, indicates the action will take place in the future. The same sentence in Spanish would be ‘Voy a nadar’. All of the present tense conjugations of Ir can be used in the same way.

This future form is usually used to refer to things that will happen or be done in the immediate or near future, it is however possible to use it to refer to other future timeframes by adding time marker words or phrases to the sentence. For example:

Mañana vamos a visitar a nuestros abuelos.

Tomorrow we are going to visit our grandparents.

El equipo va a ganar el campeonato el año que viene.

The team is going to win the championship next year.

Voy a salir a las nueve en punto.

I am going to leave at exactly nine o’clock.

In general this should be used for future events that are certain, as you are stating that they will happen not that you hope or expect them to happen. For such predictions or expressions of uncertainty it is necessary to use the subjunctive mood, which you can read about here.

The Simple Future Tense

The simple future tense is analogous to saying an event or action will happen in the future in English. It is perhaps the easiest of the Spanish tenses to conjugate, as you simply add the appropriate ending to the infinitive form of the verb in question. Unlike in many other tenses the ending is the same for verbs ending in ar, er, ir

Another factor that makes the simple future tense easy to learn is that there are fewer irregular verbs than in other tenses. The irregular verbs use the same conjugated endings as their regular counterparts, however instead of adding those endings to the infinitive form of the verb, we instead need to use a modified stem. Here are some examples of the most commonly used irregular verbs:

You can almost always use the future simple tense interchangeably with the Ir method covered in the previous section. One advantage of using the future simple however is that it does not inherently imply a specific time frame so can be used to talk about events or actions that will happen at an undetermined point in the future.

In general you will hear the Ir method used more often in Mexico and much of the rest of Latin America, while in Spain it is more common for native speakers to use the future simple.

The Future Perfect Tense

The future perfect tense is used much less often than other future forms, and is only used to talk about things that have not yet happened but will have happened at a specific point in the future. It functions in the same way as English phrases such as “I will have left before you arrive” (Habré salido antes de que llegues). It is a compound tense formed by using the appropriate future perfect conjugation of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle of the main verb. You can read more about how compound verbs function in Spanish in our detailed guide.

Beyond the normal usage of this form, it is also possible to use the future perfect to suggest possible action or events that may have happened but are unknown:

Juan y Julia no están aquí, habrán ido para almorzar.

Juan and Julia are not here, they must have/could have gone to lunch.

While this is not common usage of the tense, it is used often enough that it is worth being able to recognize it in native speech.

Using the Present Tense to Talk About the Future

In certain circumstances it is also possible to talk about future events or action using the present tense. These types of sentences will always have a phrase that indicates a specific future time frame such as después (later/after) or el próximo año (next year), providing the listener or reader with the necessary context to realize that it is not referring to the present. This is relatively rare, but in some parts of the world you may hear it more often, and it is useful to be able to recognize this type of construction.

Some examples:

Salgo con mis amigos después.

I will go out with my friends afterwards.

Bailamos el tango el mes que viene.

We will dance the tango next month.

Final Thoughts

While it is possible to get by in Spanish without learning the future tenses, it is well worth learning the different ways in which native speakers can form sentences about the future. You may find that different tenses are more popular in different parts of the Spanish speaking world, and that there is a difference between the way they are used in spoken and written Spanish. If you are reading older literature you may also come across the future subjunctive tense, however this now relatively archaic, and you are unlikely to come across it anywhere else.

Is there another Spanish language topic that you are struggling with or would like to read an article about? Let us know at communications@naatikmexico.org. You can find our other Spanish language blogs here. 

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