The Future Tense: What Will Happen

Introduction

The Spanish future tense (futuro simple) is one of the easiest tenses to conjugate because the endings are the same for all three verb groups (-AR, -ER, -IR), and they attach directly to the infinitive — no stem removal needed.

Bonus: The future tense is also used to express probability in the present: ¿Dónde estará? (Where could he be? / I wonder where he is.)

Regular Future Conjugation

Take the full infinitive and add these endings:

• Mañana hablaré con el profesor. — Tomorrow I will speak with the professor.
• ¿Comerás con nosotros? — Will you eat with us?

Irregular Future Stems

Some common verbs use a modified stem but keep the same endings. They fall into three groups:

Drop the -e from the infinitive

Replace the vowel with -d-

Unique stems

Future of Probability

Spanish often uses the future tense to speculate about the present:

• ¿Qué hora será? — What time might it be? (I wonder what time it is.)
• Estará en casa. — He's probably at home.
• Costará unos veinte euros. — It probably costs about twenty euros.

This is a distinctly Spanish usage with no direct English equivalent.

Future vs "Ir a + Infinitive"

In everyday speech, the near future with ir a + infinitive is very common:

Both are correct. The simple future can sound slightly more formal or is preferred for predictions and probability.

Practice