Future — plans, predictions, HL polish: You're in the right place: both the futuro simple and the handy ir a + infinitivo are taught identically at SL, nothing harder hiding here.
What changes at HL
- The HL benefit is range.
- Talking about plans and predictions adds depth to a longer essay.
- It lets you speculate about where a literary character's story might lead.
- Learn both routes to the future now; you'll pick whichever fits the moment.
The simple future: The simple future (el futuro simple) is how Spanish says will. The best part: the endings are identical for all three verb families (-ar, -er, -ir), so there is only one set to learn.
What you use it for
- Future plans: el año que viene viajaré
- Predictions: mañana lloverá
- Probability about now: ¿Quién será? = Who could that be?
- el futuro simple
- the simple future tense (will + verb)
- el infinitivo
- the infinitive — the whole, unchanged verb (hablar, comer, vivir); the future is built on it
- la terminación
- the ending — for the future it is added to the WHOLE infinitive
- la raíz irregular
- the irregular stem — a few verbs change the infinitive before adding the endings (tener → tendr-)
- la predicción
- a prediction — saying what will happen
- la conjetura
- conjecture / probability — guessing about the present (serán las tres)
When you reach for it: If the prompt mentions mañana, el año que viene, en el futuro, algún día — or asks you to make plans or predictions — it's the future. In speaking and writing tasks it's the natural tense for ¿Qué harás después del colegio?
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Whole infinitive + one set of endings: To form the future of a regular verb, keep the whole infinitive (don't drop anything!) and add the ending -é / -ás / -á / -emos / -éis / -án.
Two things to notice
- The very same endings work for -ar, -er and -ir verbs, so hablaré, comeré, viviré all follow the identical pattern.
- Note the accents: they fall on every ending except nosotros.
| Persona | -ar (hablar) | -er (comer) | -ir (vivir) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablaré | comeré | viviré |
| tú | hablarás | comerás | vivirás |
| él / ella / usted | hablará | comerá | vivirá |
| nosotros / nosotras | hablaremos | comeremos | viviremos |
| vosotros / vosotras | hablaréis | comeréis | viviréis |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | hablarán | comerán | vivirán |
| Infinitivo | Raíz irregular | Ejemplo (yo) |
|---|---|---|
| tener | tendr- | tendré |
| hacer | har- | haré |
| decir | dir- | diré |
| poder | podr- | podré |
| salir | saldr- | saldré |
| venir | vendr- | vendré |
| querer | querr- | querré |
| saber | sabr- | sabré |
| poner | pondr- | pondré |
Same endings, only the stem can change: Regular verbs add the endings to the full infinitive. A short list of verbs use an irregular stem (tener → tendr-, hacer → har-), but they take exactly the same endings: tendré, tendrás, tendrá… Learn the nine stems above and you've covered almost every irregular future.
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Three everyday jobs: The future tense does a few different jobs. Here are the three you meet most in the exam — each with a Spanish example. There's also a very common everyday alternative for the near future, shown at the end.
Usos del futuro
- Future plans — El verano que viene viajaré a México con mi familia. (Next summer I will travel to Mexico with my family.)
- Predictions — Mañana hará buen tiempo en toda la costa. (Tomorrow the weather will be good along the whole coast.)
- Probability / conjecture about now — ¿Quién será a estas horas? Serán los vecinos. (Who could that be at this hour? It's probably the neighbours.)
The near-future alternative: ir a + infinitivo: For plans that are close or already decided, Spanish very often uses ir a + infinitivo instead: Voy a estudiar esta noche (I'm going to study tonight). It means roughly the same as estudiaré esta noche, and it's the form you'll hear most in casual speech. The simple future sounds a little more formal or distant.
My plans, sentence by sentence: Here's a short paragraph about future plans, built one sentence at a time.
How to read it
- Every verb is in the simple future.
- Watch for the irregular stems terminaré… tendré… haré.
- Read it once for the meaning, then tap Ver traducción for the English or the audio button to hear it.
El futuro en acción
Mis planes, frase a frase
- El año que viene terminaré el bachillerato y empezaré la universidad.
- Estudiaré ingeniería porque me gustan las matemáticas y la tecnología.
- Tendré que mudarme a otra ciudad, así que viviré en una residencia.
- Mis amigos y yo nos veremos en las vacaciones y viajaremos juntos.
- Algún día haré un máster en el extranjero y trabajaré como ingeniera.
Steal this for your plans: Notice the pattern: a time marker (el año que viene, algún día) + a verb in the future. Swap in your own plans and you have a ready-made answer for ¿Qué harás en el futuro? Remember the irregular stems — haré, not haceré.
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The slips to watch for: Two mistakes account for most lost marks in the future. Compare the right version with the typical mistake and the fix becomes obvious.
The two slips
- Dropping the accent: the ending must keep its tilde.
- Regularising an irregular stem: writing teneré instead of tendré.
Correcto
- Mañana hablaré con el profesor.
- El sábado tendremos una fiesta.
- Ellos harán los deberes esta tarde.
Error común
- Mañana hablare con el profesor.
- El sábado teneremos una fiesta.
- Ellos haceran los deberes esta tarde.
Check the accent and the stem: Before you move on, ask two things: does the ending keep its accent (hablaré, not hablare), and is the verb one of the irregular-stem ones (tener → tendré, hacer → haré)? Those two checks catch nearly every future-tense slip.