Lesson 36: The future tense using 'I will'
We've seen ways to talk about the future using the present tense - using future context or 'I'm going to'. But there is a future tense in Spanish the same as the 'I will' structure in English
Recap - talking about the future
OK, let's just do a quick reminder of what we have learned so far to talk about the future.
Future Context
We can simply use the present tense but add some future context
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Desayuno con ellos mañana | I am having breakfast with them tomorrow |
I am going to ....
Where we don't have future context we can use "going to":
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Voy a desayunar con ellos | I am going to have breakfast with them |
We can still use the future context here if we wanted to be more specific about when in the future.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Voy a desayunar con ellos mañana | I am going to have breakfast with them tomorrow |
The Spanish future tense using "will"
This tense is actually based on the "I have" tense that we have already covered for talking about the past.
There we looked at 'haber' and took out the two sounds - 'e' and 'a' to get the various forms - and start with 'e'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| He | I have (gone/done/said/etc.) |
And to change "I" to "we" we did the very standard spanish thing of taking off the 'e' and changing it to 'emos'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Hemos | We have (gone/done/said/etc.) |
Then we moved on to the 'a' sound:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Ha | He/she/it/you(formal) has/have |
And did the very standard change we use a lot in Spanish to get they - an 'n' ending - and you informal - a 's' ending.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Han | They / you guys have |
| Has | You (informal) have |
Remember remembering this way will be far more effective in the longer term than just trying to memorise the forms. Building out the verb takes mental energy which causes what you do to sing far deeper into your memory. Slower at first, faster in the long run.
Let's just look at a few examples:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| He dormido | I have slept |
| Hemos dormido | We have slept |
| Ha dormido | He has slept |
| Lo han recomendado | They have recommended it |
Using 'haber' endings to get the future tense
So once you know the past tense using "I have" ... you actually know the future tense! How? Because you take all the sounds of 'he', 'an', 'as' and put them on the end of the to form of the verb to get the future!
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Comeré | I will eat |
Some takeaways here:
- Obviously the spelling is not the same but the pronounciation is (well you can't have everything!). However Spanish is always spoken as it is written so if you remember how to say it you will remember how to write it.
- The accent is on the last syllable and we can remember this by the accident being pushed into the future, being pushed to the end of the verb.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Comeremos | We will eat |
| Comerá | He/she/you (formal) will eat |
| Comerás | You (informal) will eat |
| Comerán | They/you guys will eat |
Ir in the future
'Ir' - "to go" - in the present tense was very irregular but in the future tense it isn't
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Iré | I will go |
| Iremos | We will go |
| Irá | He/she/you (formal) will go |
| Irás | You (informal) will go |
| Irán | They/you guys will go |
| Irán a Iran | They/you guys will go to Iran |
And there at the end is a really great way to remember how to say "they/you guys will go" and learn the name of a country!
Now the same rules apply as always for making things into questions. Its all just about how you say it:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Irás? | Will you (informal) go? |
| ¿No irás? | Won't you (informal) go? |
| ¿Por qué no irás? | Why won't you (informal) go? |
The future with other verbs
So let's see this future tense in use with other verbs
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Encontrar | To find |
| Encontraré | I will find |
| Lo encontraré | I will find it |
| Lo encontraremos | We will find it |
| Lo encontrará | He/She will find it |
| Los encontrará | He/She will find them |
And with a reflexive verb - a verb you can do to yourself.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me quedo | I remain / I stay |
| Me quedaré | I will stay |
| Me quedaré aquí | I will stay here |
And some more
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Prepararé | I will prepare |
| Esperaré | I will wait |
| Organizara | He will organize |
| Organizaran | They will organize |
| Estaré cansada | I will be tired (female) |
And now something you might find familiar - how to say "it will be" using 'ser' means adding an 'a' to the end and getting
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Sera | It will be |
| Que sera sera | What will be will be |
A final note on the future tense
It is not used so much in Spanish as it is in English. Most of the time people use the present tense with some future context or the "going to" form.
You'll find it is generally only used to emphasise a point - "I will eat" - I'm definitely going to eat.
Lesson 37: 'Lo' and 'le' - 'him' and 'to him' explained