Chapter 33 · A2
El Futuro Simple
Might help first: Ch. 20 — Verb Conjugation System: Overview & Regular Verbs, Ch. 22 — Present Tense: Regular -AR/-ER/-IR Verbs (a suggestion, never a requirement)
Spanish has a dedicated future tense — one word, not a helper verb plus an infinitive — for talking about what will happen: hablaré, comerás, vivirá. English speakers often reach first for a Spanish equivalent of “going to,” and that construction exists too (more on it below), but the futuro simple isn’t a fallback or an afterthought: it’s the tense Spanish reaches for in predictions, promises, formal writing, and news headlines. It also has a second job that has nothing to do with future time at all — guessing what’s probably true right now — and that job is used so constantly in everyday speech that this chapter gives it real weight, not a footnote.
Core Pattern: The Whole Infinitive as the Stem
Regular verbs: infinitive + one shared ending set
A1For a regular verb in any of the three conjugations, the future is built by taking the entire infinitive — unchanged, not trimmed down to a stem the way the present tense is — and attaching one of six endings. This is a genuine simplification: there’s no stem to sort out, and unlike the present tense, the same six endings attach identically whether the verb is -ar, -er, or -ir.
The same six endings — -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án — attach to comer and vivir exactly as they do to hablar, with no ending swap between conjugations:
| hablar | comer | vivir | |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | hablaré | comeré | viviré |
| tú | hablarás | comerás | vivirás |
| él/ella/usted | hablará | comerá | vivirá |
| nosotros | hablaremos | comeremos | viviremos |
| vosotros | hablaréis | comeréis | viviréis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | hablarán | comerán | vivirán |
Mañana hablaré con el jefe sobre el proyecto.
Tomorrow I'll talk to the boss about the project.
¿A qué hora volveréis de la excursión?
What time will you all get back from the trip?
Building Out: The 12 Irregular Stems, Grouped by Pattern
The endings above never change — not even for the verbs in this section. What changes is the stem they attach to: twelve common verbs replace all or part of the infinitive with an irregular stem before taking the exact same six endings. Twelve looks like a lot to memorize at first glance, but they sort cleanly into three small families, and recognizing the family tells you the pattern.
The d-insertion group: tener, poner, salir, venir, valer
A2Five verbs drop the infinitive’s final vowel and squeeze in a -d- before the endings attach:
| Infinitive | Stem | yo | nosotros |
|---|---|---|---|
| tener (to have) | tendr- | tendré | tendremos |
| poner (to put) | pondr- | pondré | pondremos |
| salir (to leave) | saldr- | saldré | saldremos |
| venir (to come) | vendr- | vendré | vendremos |
| valer (to be worth) | valdr- | valdré | valdremos |
As with the preterite’s irregular stems (Chapter 27) and haber’s present-tense forms as the perfect-tense auxiliary (Chapter 30), there’s no boot outline to draw here: the irregularity is the stem itself, and every one of the six forms is built on that same irregular tendr-. This is now a pattern worth recognizing on sight across chapters — whenever an irregularity replaces the whole stem rather than shifting a vowel in just four of six cells, expect a plain grid, not a boot.
¿Vendréis a la boda el sábado?
Will you all come to the wedding on Saturday?
No cabremos todos en el coche — tendremos que pedir un taxi.
We won't all fit in the car — we'll have to call a taxi.
The vowel-drop group: poder, saber, caber, haber, querer
A2Five more verbs simply drop the infinitive’s -e- before attaching the endings, with no consonant inserted:
| Infinitive | Stem | yo | nosotros |
|---|---|---|---|
| poder (to be able to) | podr- | podré | podremos |
| saber (to know) | sabr- | sabré | sabremos |
| caber (to fit) | cabr- | cabré | cabremos |
| haber (auxiliary “to have”) | habr- | habré | habremos |
| querer (to want) | querr- | querré | querremos |
No sabré la respuesta hasta mañana.
I won't know the answer until tomorrow.
¿Querrás acompañarme al médico?
Will you want to come with me to the doctor?
Hold onto habré and its siblings — you’ll meet this exact stem again as the auxiliary that builds the futuro compuesto in Chapter 35. For now, it behaves here just like any other verb in this group.
The truncation group: decir and hacer
A2The last two verbs cut further than either group above: decir loses everything but the letter d, and hacer loses everything but the letter h, before the endings attach.
| Infinitive | Stem | yo | nosotros |
|---|---|---|---|
| decir (to say/tell) | dir- | diré | diremos |
| hacer (to do/make) | har- | haré | haremos |
Te diré la verdad cuando llegue el momento.
I'll tell you the truth when the moment comes.
¿Qué harás este fin de semana?
What will you do this weekend?
Only two verbs belong to this group, and their stems don’t reduce to a shared rule the way the two groups above do — they’re simplest to just memorize outright.
Nuance, Exceptions & Contrast
Future for conjecture: what’s probably true right now
B1The futuro simple has a second job that has nothing to do with future time at all: expressing a guess about the present. English handles this with “must be,” “probably,” or “I bet” — Spanish just uses the future tense of the verb in question, with no extra word required.
Son las diez y María no ha llegado. Estará en el tráfico.
It's ten o'clock and María hasn't arrived. She's probably stuck in traffic.
¿Quién llama a esta hora? Será tu hermano.
Who's calling at this hour? It's probably your brother.
Tendrá unos treinta años.
He's probably around thirty.
This use — sometimes called the “future of probability” — is extremely common in everyday speech, not a rare literary flourish. Any time you’d say “probably,” “must be,” or “I wonder if” about a present situation in English, try reaching for the futuro simple instead of a separate word for “probably.”
Two ways to talk about the future: ir a + infinitivo
A1Spanish also builds a future meaning without this chapter’s tense at all, using a helper verb: ir (conjugated in the present — voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van, Chapter 23) + a + infinitive.
Voy a comer paella esta noche.
I'm going to eat paella tonight.
¿Vais a venir a la fiesta?
Are you all going to come to the party?
In everyday speech, ir a + infinitive is often the more natural first choice for something already decided or close at hand — much like English “going to” versus “will.” The futuro simple, by contrast, leans more toward predictions, promises, formal or written contexts, and — as just covered — conjecture. This is a distinction of register and nuance rather than a hard rule; native speakers use both constructions for plain future meaning constantly, and the line between them blurs in casual conversation.
Mañana va a llover.
Tomorrow it's going to rain.
El año que viene lloverá menos, según los expertos.
Next year it will rain less, according to experts.
Bringing It Together
El próximo verano haremos un viaje largo. Saldremos el primero de julio y no volveremos hasta agosto. Todavía no sé cuánto costará, pero supongo que tendremos que ahorrar bastante. Voy a empezar a planear la ruta este fin de semana.
Next summer we'll take a long trip. We'll leave on July first and won't come back until August. I still don't know how much it will cost, but I imagine we'll have to save quite a bit. I'm going to start planning the route this weekend.
Faced with a verb you need to put in the future, check first whether it’s one of the twelve irregular stems above — if not, the whole infinitive plus the ending is all you need. If what you’re actually doing is guessing at something true right now rather than stating something that hasn’t happened yet, the same form does that job too. And if the moment feels closer, more decided, or more conversational than a formal prediction, ir a + infinitive is usually the more natural pick.
Where to Go Next
- Chapter 22, Present Tense: Regular Verbs — Spanish also uses the plain present tense colloquially for a near, decided future (“salgo en cinco minutos”), a lighter-weight cousin of ir a + infinitivo above.
- Chapter 23, Present Tense: Stem-Changing & Irregular Verbs — the g-insertion yo-forms (tengo, pongo, salgo, vengo) that this chapter’s d-insertion stems echo, and ir’s own present-tense paradigm used in ir a + infinitivo.
- Chapter 34, El Condicional Simple — the identical 12 irregular stems taught here, paired with a different ending set, plus the exact past-tense parallel to this chapter’s conjecture use.
- Chapter 35, El Futuro Compuesto & Condicional Compuesto — habré and its siblings, built on this chapter’s habr- stem, used as the auxiliary for the future perfect.
- Chapter 45, Verbal Periphrases — ir a + infinitivo’s full, dedicated treatment as one member of a larger family of periphrastic constructions.
Ready to practice?
9 exercises · multiple-choice, fill-blank, conjugation-grid…