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Future tense forms from the Spanish in Texas Corpus
In general, the future tenses in Spanish and in English are used similarly to talk about future actions and events. The Spanish future tense is generally translated into English with the modal auxiliary will. In Spanish the future tense can be formed in two different ways: the simple future (or synthetic future) and the periphrastic future (ir + a + infinitive).
Simple Future or Synthetic Future
The simple future (or synthetic future) is so-named because it is a one-word tense.
Form
The future is conjugated by taking the infinitive and adding the appropriate endings as in the following table:
| hablar to speak | |
|---|---|
| yo hablaré | nosotros/as hablaremos |
| tú hablarás | |
| él/ella/usted hablará | ellos/as/ustedes hablarán |
What do you think it will be like?
Stem Changers
Some verbs are irregular in the future and do not use the infinitive as the stem to form the simple future. Some examples are:
- Tener and its compounds (mantener, obtener, etc.): tendré, tendrás, tendrá, mantendremos, obtendrán, etc.
- Haber: habrá
- Venir: vendré, vendrás, vendrá, etc.
- Decir: diré, dirás, dirá, etc.
- Hacer: haré, harás, hará, etc.
- Poner: pondré, pondrás, pondrá, etc.
- Salir: saldré, saldrás, saldrá, etc.
- Poder: podré, podrás, podrá, etc.
- Querer: querré, querrás, querrá, etc.
- Saber: sabré, sabrás, sabrá, etc.
Do you think that you will have children some day?
Possibility or Uncertainty
In in addition to describing the future, the synthetic future (but not the periphrastic future) can also be used to make predictions or guesses about the present.
Tenía un sabor diferente que lo de aquí. Será por los ingredientes locales que usan o no sé qué, pero tenía un sabor diferente.It tasted different compared to the one you find here. It might be because of the local ingredients that they use or something else, but it tasted different.
Periphrastic Future
The periphrastic future is formed using the present tense of the auxiliar verb ir (to go) followed by the preposition a plus the infinitive of the main verb.
| hablar to speak | |
|---|---|
| yo voy a hablar | nosotros/as vamos a hablar |
| tú vas a hablar | |
| él/ella/usted va a hablar | ellos/as/ustedes van a hablar |
I will not say anything.