Spanish/Future

Spanish/Verbs

I will think, he will shout, you will die, ...

Pensaré, gritará, morirás, ...

—  or  —

Voy a pensar, va a gritar, vas a morir, ...

There are two ways to communicate future events in Spanish. In the first one, add an ending to the unchanged infinitive form of the verb. These same endings are used for all three types of verbs (-AR, -ER and -IR), which makes learning them easier:

-é -ás -á -emos -án

Pensaré: I will think Pensarás: you will think Pensará: it will think Pensaremos: we will think Pensarán: they will think

Iré: I will go Irás: you will go Irá: she will go Iremos: we will go Irán: y'all will go

There are 12 verbs which change their infinitives before adding the ending, and they can be classified into 3 catigories: First, the "drop 'e's" are "querer," "poder," "caber," "haber," and "saber." Each of these loses the 'e' before the final 'r' when forming the future tense. These can be remembered by the mnemonic "Quick People Can't Have Sushi." Next, the "add 'd's" are "venir," "valer," "salir," "tener," and "poner." For these, the 2nd to last letter of the infinitive is replaced with a 'd'. These can be remembered by the mnemonic "Vroom Vroom, Said The Porsche." Finally, the verbs "decir" and "hacer" change their infinitives to "dir" and "har" respectively before adding the ending. These must simply be memorised.

The alternate way to describe the future is to use the present tense of "ir," followed by the infinitive of the action verb.

Voy a saber: I am going to know Vas a mentir: You are going to lie Va a cazar: He/she is going to hunt Vamos a contar: We are going to count Van a poner: They are going to put