Spanish Future Tense (Futuro Simple): Endings and Irregular Verbs

The Spanish future tense, or futuro simple, is how Spanish says what will happen: Mañana lloverá (It will rain tomorrow), Te llamaré esta noche (I'll call you tonight). You may also see it called the simple future (future simple), the future indicative or futuro imperfecto, its traditional name in Spanish grammar books. Unlike English, Spanish needs no helper word like will: the future is a single verb form with its own endings.

The good news: this is one of the easiest Spanish tenses to conjugate. All verbs share one set of endings, added to the whole infinitive, and only twelve common verbs have an irregular stem. The tricky part is usage. In everyday speech, Spanish speakers often prefer ir a + infinitive for plans (Voy a comer, I'm going to eat), and they use the future tense to make guesses about the present (Serán las tres, It's probably three o'clock).

On this page:

• when to use the Spanish future tense: six uses with examples;
• signal words for the future;
• future tense endings and accent marks;
• irregular verbs in the future tense: the twelve stems and their compounds;
• future tense vs. ir a + infinitive vs. present;
• common mistakes and example sentences.

When to use the Spanish future tense

The futuro simple does more than English will. Besides talking about the future, it expresses guesses, commands and concessions. These are the six uses you need.

1. Future actions and predictions, especially distant or uncertain ones: Dentro de cincuenta años los coches no tendrán conductor. (In fifty years cars won't have drivers.) It is the standard tense of weather forecasts, horoscopes and the news: Mañana lloverá en el norte. (Tomorrow it will rain in the north.) El presidente viajará a Lima el martes. (The president will travel to Lima on Tuesday.)
2. Promises, commitments and threats. Te llamaré en cuanto llegue. (I'll call you as soon as I arrive.) No volveré a llegar tarde, te lo prometo. (I won't be late again, I promise.) Esto no quedará así. (This isn't over.)
3. Guesses about the present (the future of probability). Where English says probably, must or I wonder, Spanish uses the future: ¿Qué hora es? - No sé, serán las tres. (What time is it? - I don't know, it must be about three.) ¿Quién será a estas horas? (Who could that be at this hour?) Marta no contesta: estará en el metro. (Marta isn't answering; she's probably on the subway.) Native speakers use this all the time, and learners almost never do. Note that the verb here refers to now, not to the future.
4. The result in "if" sentences. Just like in English, the condition goes in the present and the result in the future: Si estudias, aprobarás. (If you study, you'll pass.) Si no te das prisa, perderás el tren. (If you don't hurry, you'll miss the train.)
5. Commands and rules (the future of command). It sounds stronger than the imperative and appears in solemn texts and regulations: No matarás. (Thou shalt not kill.) Harás los deberes antes de ver la tele. (You will do your homework before you watch TV.) Los candidatos presentarán la solicitud antes del 30 de junio. (Applicants shall submit the form by June 30.)
6. Concession and surprise. Followed by pero, the future grants a point before contradicting it: Será muy listo, pero no estudia nada. (He may be smart, but he doesn't study at all.) In questions and exclamations it shows surprise or annoyance: ¿Será posible? (Can you believe it?)

Signal words for the future tense

These time expressions place an action in the future. None of them forces the futuro simple: ir a + infinitive and the present tense work with all of them too (Mañana salgo a las ocho, I'm leaving at eight tomorrow). But they tell you the sentence is about something that hasn't happened yet.

Look at the last row. In English you say when I finish (present tense). In Spanish, a future cuando clause takes the present subjunctive (cuando termine), and the future tense goes in the main clause.

Spanish future tense endings and conjugation

To form the future tense of a regular verb, don't drop anything: add the ending straight to the whole infinitive. The endings are the same for -ar, -er and -ir verbs. The only other tense that works this way is the conditional.

Accent marks in the future tense

In the future tense the stress always falls on the ending. That is why five of the six forms carry a written accent: hablaré, hablarás, hablará, hablaréis, hablarán. The nosotros form is stressed on the next-to-last syllable and ends in -s, so it has no accent: hablaremos, comeremos, viviremos.

The accent is not optional. Hablará (he will speak) is future; hablara without the accent is the imperfect subjunctive (Si hablara más despacio, lo entendería - If he spoke more slowly, I'd understand him). Verbs with an accent in the infinitive lose it in the future, because the stress moves to the ending: oír → oiré (I will hear), reír → reiré (I will laugh).

Verbs that are regular in the future

Many verbs that are irregular in other tenses are perfectly regular here. Stem-changing verbs keep the stem of the infinitive, with no ie or ue: pensar → pensaré, dormir → dormiré, pedir → pediré. Even ser, ir, estar, dar and ver are regular: seré, iré, estaré, daré, veré. There are no spelling changes either, because the ending is added to the whole infinitive: buscar → buscaré, llegar → llegaré, empezar → empezaré.

With reflexive verbs, the pronoun goes before the conjugated verb: me levantaré (I'll get up), te levantarás, se levantará, nos levantaremos, os levantaréis, se levantarán.

Vosotros, ustedes and vos

The Spanish you hear in the US and Latin America does not use vosotros. For "you all", both formal and informal, Latin Americans say ustedes with the ellos form: ¿Vendrán ustedes a la boda? (Will you all come to the wedding?) Vosotros (¿Vendréis a la boda?) is used only in Spain. In countries with voseo, such as Argentina, vos takes the same future form as tú: vos tendrás, vos podrás.

Irregular verbs in the Spanish future tense

The Spanish future tense has only twelve basic irregular verbs, plus the verbs built on them. They all work the same way: the stem changes, and the endings (-é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án) stay regular. The twelve fall into three groups, which makes them easy to memorize.

1. The e of the infinitive drops out

The vowel of the -er ending disappears: caber → cabré (I will fit), haber → habré, poder → podré (I will be able to), querer → querré (I will want; note the double r), saber → sabré (I will know).

2. The e or i is replaced by d

The vowel drops and a d appears to make the stem easier to pronounce: poner → pondré (I will put), salir → saldré (I will leave), tener → tendré (I will have), valer → valdré (I will be worth), venir → vendré (I will come).

3. Shortened stems

Two of the most frequent verbs shorten their stem and simply have to be memorized: decir → diré (I will say), hacer → haré (I will do, I will make).

Compound verbs

Verbs built on these twelve inherit the irregular stem: mantener → mantendré (I will maintain), obtener → obtendré, contener → contendré, suponer → supondré, componer → compondré, proponer → propondré, prevenir → prevendré, deshacer → desharé, satisfacer → satisfaré. The decir family is the exception: bendecir (to bless) is regular (bendeciré), and predecir (to predict) accepts both prediré and predeciré.

That is the whole list. Oír → oiré only loses the accent of the infinitive, and verbs like conocer or parecer are regular even though they end in -cer like hacer: conoceré, pareceré.

Same stems as the conditional

The conditional uses exactly the same irregular stems, with the endings -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían: tendré → tendría (I will have → I would have), haré → haría, diré → diría. Learn the future stems and you also know the Spanish conditional. That is why the list below shows two yo forms for each common irregular verb: future first, conditional second. Tap a verb to see its full conjugation.

Tener, hacer and decir in the future tense

The three irregular futures you will use most, in all six persons:

In context: Tendremos que salir antes. (We'll have to leave earlier.) ¿Qué harás este fin de semana? (What will you do this weekend?) Mañana te diré algo. (I'll let you know tomorrow.)

Haber in the future: habré and habrá

Haber has two jobs in the future. As a helping verb it has all six forms and, with a past participle, builds the future perfect:

On its own, habrá is the future of hay: "there will be". Like hay, it never changes for plural nouns: Mañana habrá huelga de metro. (There will be a subway strike tomorrow.) En la reunión habrá muchas personas. (There will be a lot of people at the meeting.)

Future tense vs. ir a + infinitive vs. present

Spanish has three common ways to talk about the future, and English speakers tend to overuse the futuro simple because it looks like will. All three are often correct, but they are not interchangeable.

• Ir a + infinitive (the "going to" future): plans and intentions already made, and things you can see coming. It is the most common future in conversation, especially in Latin America: Voy a estudiar Medicina. (I'm going to study medicine.) Mira esas nubes: va a llover. (Look at those clouds, it's going to rain.)
• Present tense: scheduled events, fixed arrangements and on-the-spot offers, much like English I'm leaving at eight: Mañana salgo a las ocho. (I'm leaving at eight tomorrow.) El tren sale a las 9:15. (The train leaves at 9:15.) Espera, te ayudo. (Wait, I'll help you.)
• Futuro simple: predictions, promises, and distant or uncertain events; more frequent in writing and formal speech: Algún día viviré junto al mar. (Someday I'll live by the sea.)

One key difference: when it expresses a guess, the futuro simple talks about the present, while ir a + infinitive always points forward. Estará en la oficina = she's probably at the office right now; Va a estar en la oficina = she's going to be at the office later.

Future tense vs. future perfect

The future perfect (habré + past participle) presents an action as finished before a point in the future, like English will have done. Compare: A las ocho terminaré el informe (I'll finish the report at eight) and A las ocho ya habré terminado el informe (By eight I'll have finished the report). And just as the simple future guesses about the present, the future perfect guesses about the recent past: No contesta: habrá salido. (She's not answering; she must have gone out.)

Common mistakes with the Spanish future tense

1. *teneré, *poneré, *saliré → tendré, pondré, saldré. Verbs in the d group don't keep the vowel of the infinitive, and neither do their compounds: mantendré, not *manteneré.
2. *haceré, *diceré, *poderé → haré, diré, podré. This is what happens when you apply the regular rule (infinitive + ending) to an irregular verb. The twelve stems have to be learned by heart.
3. Missing accent: *hablara → hablará. Without the accent, hablara is the imperfect subjunctive, a completely different form. Mañana hablará con él (He'll talk to him tomorrow) needs the accent.
4. *hablarémos → hablaremos. The nosotros form is the only one without an accent.
5. *vosotros hablarán → vosotros hablaréis. Vosotros takes -éis; ustedes takes -án (ustedes hablarán). If you are learning Latin American Spanish, just use ustedes.
6. Translating every "will" with the future. English will also makes requests, offers and refusals, and Spanish doesn't use the future for those. Will you open the window? = ¿Abres la ventana? or ¿Puedes abrir la ventana? The phone's ringing, I'll get it = Ya contesto yo. He won't listen = No quiere escuchar.
7. The future after si or cuando. Conditions take the present, as in English: *Si lloverá → Si llueve, no saldremos (If it rains, we won't go out). Future when clauses take the subjunctive: *Cuando llegaré → Cuando llegue, te llamaré (When I arrive, I'll call you). Put a comma after the si clause when it comes first, and none when it comes second: Te llamaré si puedo. Exception: in indirect questions, si means "whether" and the future is fine: No sé si vendrá. (I don't know whether he'll come.)
8. *Habrán problemas → Habrá problemas. "There will be" is always habrá, even with a plural noun: habrá fiestas (there will be parties).

Spanish future tense examples

• Mañana me levantaré a las seis para ir al aeropuerto. (Tomorrow I'll get up at six to go to the airport.)
• ¿Vendrás a la cena del sábado? (Will you come to dinner on Saturday?)
• El concierto empezará con media hora de retraso. (The concert will start half an hour late.)
• Usted podrá pagar con tarjeta o en efectivo. (You will be able to pay by card or in cash.)
• El año que viene haremos el Camino de Santiago. (Next year we'll walk the Camino de Santiago.)
• ¿Sabréis llegar sin GPS? (Will you all find the way without GPS?)
• Mis abuelos vivirán con nosotros a partir de enero. (My grandparents will live with us starting in January.)
• Ustedes tendrán los resultados el lunes. (You will have the results on Monday.)
• Tranquila, no le diré nada a nadie. (Don't worry, I won't tell anyone anything.)
• En la fiesta habrá música en vivo. (There will be live music at the party.)
• ¿Dónde estarán mis llaves? (I wonder where my keys are.)
• Si sigues comiendo tanto, te dolerá el estómago. (If you keep eating so much, your stomach will hurt.)

How to learn the Spanish future tense

You can learn the endings in a day: there are six, and every verb uses them. The real work is the twelve irregular stems. Learn them in their three groups (drop the e, add a d, shortened stem) and conjugate each one out loud from yo to ellos: tendré, tendrás, tendrá... You review the conditional at the same time, since it uses the same stems. Then practice the guessing use (¿Dónde estará?, Serán las diez): it is the part of the futuro simple that sounds most natural to native speakers and the one textbooks cover least.

In the verbos.app trainer you pick the future tense and the persons you want to drill, then type the forms until they come without thinking.

Related tenses: the Spanish present tense, which can also refer to the future; the conditional, built on the same irregular stems; and the future perfect. For the past, see the Spanish preterite and preterite vs. imperfect. Every irregular form by tense is on the Spanish irregular verbs page, and full conjugation tables are in the 100 most common Spanish verbs. Overview of all tenses: Spanish tenses chart.