Do you know when to use the future perfect in Spanish? Known in Spanish as the futuro compuesto or antefuturo, the future perfect tense in Spanish works very similarly to its English counterpart to speak about things that "will have" happened at a given point of time in the future. However, despite its name, it can also be used to describe or ask about things that "must" or "would have" happened in the past! Let's take a look at how to conjugate the future perfect in Spanish as well examples of these usages.
Just like the Spanish present perfect tense, which is used to express things one "has done" in utterances like Yo he comido (I have eaten), the future perfect in Spanish employs the verb haber (an auxiliary, or helping, verb that means "have") plus the past participle (whose regular forms end in -ado or -ido and correspond to English participles ending in -ed or -en such as "danced," "taken," etc.). However, in contrast to the present perfect, where haber is conjugated in the present tense, the future perfect in Spanish employs the future tense of this verb. With this in mind, let's see the formula for conjugating the future perfect in Spanish:
Future tense of haber + past participle
Now, let's look at the future tense conjugations of the verb haber then hear how they are pronounced:
| Personal Pronoun: | Future Conjugation of Haber: |
|---|---|
| yo | habré (I will have) |
| tú | habrás (you will have) |
| él/ella/usted | habrá (he/she/you will have) |
| nosotros/as | habremos (we will have) |
| vosotros/as | habréis (you will have) |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | habrán (they/you will have) |
Habré, habrás, habrá, habremos, habréis, habrán.
I will have, you will have, he/she/you will have, we will have, you all will have, they/you all will have.
Caption 81, Escuela BCNLIP - Clase con Javi: el futuro
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And finally, we will examine some examples of this formula in action:
ya que entonces el hechizo habrá terminado.
because then the spell will have finished.
Caption 56, Cuentos de hadas - Cenicienta
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Habréis visto que sobre la mesa tengo también un trozo de limón.
You'll have seen that on the table, I also have a piece of lemon.
Captions 33-34, Soledad - Ensalada de alcachofa
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You may have noticed that, as we indicated in the introduction, while the first example refers to something that "will happen" in the future, the second describes something that the speaker's audience probably saw in the past! Let's examine more closely these two different ways to employ the future perfect tense in Spanish.
The following examples illustrate the use of the Spanish future perfect tense to describe what "will have" happened in the future, which the context indicates quite clearly:
todavía estará más bueno,
it will be even better
ya que habrá cogido más cuerpo y más sabor.
since it will have gotten more body and more flavor.
Captions 69-70, Fermín - Ensalada de tomate
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Dentro de cinco años, los ingenieros habrán terminado de construir el puente.
Within five years, the engineers will have finished building the bridge.
Para el año 2030, yo habré ahorrado mucho dinero.
By the year 2030, I will have saved a lot of money.
Let's conclude by looking at examples of the future perfect tense in Spanish that depict what "will" or "must" have happened in the past or speculate about what "would" or "could have" taken place:
Si pusieron atención,
If you paid attention,
se habrán dado cuenta que Kevin y Leo, que son hermanos,
you will have noticed that Kevin and Leo, who are brothers,
Captions 50-51, Carlos comenta - Los Años Maravillosos - Forma de hablar
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Bueno, querido, pero algo habrás hecho.
Well, dear, but you must have done something.
Caption 25, Muñeca Brava - 39 Verdades - Part 4
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¿Lo buscó bien?
Did you look for him well?
Lo buscó... -¿Pero dónde se habrá ido?
You looked for him... -But where would he have gone?
Caption 36, Confidencial: Asesino al Volante - Capítulo 3
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Although the translations for each of these examples vary slightly, what they all have in common is the fact that the action being described requires an educated guess about something that has already happened.
That's all for today. We hope that this lesson has helped you to understand when to use future perfect in Spanish, and don't forget to write us with your questions and comments.
The Spanish near future tense is an alternative to the traditional future tense in Spanish. If you haven't yet learned to conjugate the future tense in Spanish or find it difficult, we recommend using the near future tense in Spanish, which is expressed with a simple formula that we'll teach you today.
Since the near future tense in Spanish is most commonly (but not always!) seen in the present indicative tense, it will behoove you to make sure you know the present indicative conjugation of the verb ir. Let's take a look:
| Subject Pronoun | Present Conjugation of Ir |
| yo | voy |
| tú | vas |
| él, ella, usted | va |
| nosotros/as | vamos |
| vosotros/as | vais |
| ellos/as, ustedes | van |
Now that we've recalled the present indicative conjugation of ir, let's take a look at the formula for the Spanish near future tense, which is ir + a + infinitive. As ir means "to go," and a can mean "to," you can think of the Spanish near future tense as "to be going to" do something. Let's see some examples:
¡Abuelo, no vas a creer lo que te voy a contar!
Grandpa, you aren't going to believe what I'm going to tell you!
Caption 9, Guillermina y Candelario El Mejor Columpio
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y ellos nos van a dar un poco de información.
and they are going to give us a bit of information.
Caption 4, El Aula Azul Los profesores de la escuela - Part 2
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Entonces, hoy vamos a hablar de la familia.
So, today we are going to talk about family.
Caption 1, Curso de español Vamos a hablar de la familia
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Sidenote:
The first person plural form vamos a + infinitive can also be an alternative for the nosotros/as command form, which is the equivalent of "Let's" [do something] in English. We see this in the popular expression Vamos a ver (Let's see):
Así que, vamos a ver de qué se trata.
So, let's see what it is.
Caption 6, Ana Carolina Receta para una picada
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That said, although there may be some cases in which it is difficult to determine whether a Spanish sentence with vamos a + infinitive is intended to mean "we're going to" or "let's," in most cases, context should make this clear.
Technically, the Spanish near future tense is intended for events that are imminent rather than in the distant future, and for that reason, it is quite often accompanied by words like ahora (now) or hoy (today), as in the following examples:
y hoy les voy a dar siete consejos prácticos para mejorar su pronunciación en español.
and today I'm going to give you seven practical tips to improve your pronunciation in Spanish.
Captions 4-5, Ana Carolina Mejorando la pronunciación
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Muy bien. Pues ahora, vais a practicar más.
Very good. Well, now you're going to practice more.
Caption 39, Clase Aula Azul La segunda condicional - Part 7
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Having said that, the near future tense is extremely common to hear in spoken Spanish (probably more so than the traditional future tense) and will often be heard describing events with a vaguer or more distant timeline:
Y algún día voy a ser la voz líder de mi banda, los Equis seis.
And someday, I'm going to be the lead singer of my band, the X6 [Ex Six].
Caption 11, X6 1 - La banda - Part 1
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For this reason, as the traditional future and near future tenses are virtually equivalent in terms of meaning, you should feel free to use this near future tense "hack" in virtually any situation in which you wish to describe an action in the future.
So, what if, rather than saying you "are going to" do something, you wish to say that, at a certain moment in the past, you "were going to" perform an action? You would do so by using the near future tense, but conjugating the infinitive ir in the Spanish imperfect tense. Let's take a look at it:
| Subject Pronoun | Imperfect Conjugation of Ir |
| yo | iba |
| tú | ibas |
| él, ella, usted | iba |
| nosotros/as | íbamos |
| vosotros/as | ibais |
| ellos/as, ustedes | iban |
Now, let's see some examples:
Llegué al examen muy contenta porque sabía que iba a aprobar.
I got to the exam very happy because I knew I was going to pass.
Captions 64-65, Los casos de Yabla El examen - Part 1
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Te dije que íbamos a hacer ejercicio.
I told you we were going to exercise.
Caption 67, Cleer y Lida Los números
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Sidenotes:
1. Be aware that this same construction could be used to indicate something one "used to go do" in the past, for example, "En el verano, yo iba a nadar a la piscina" ("In summer, I'd go to swim at the pool"). Context will usually tell you which meaning is intended.
2. For the past version of the near future tense, remember to use the imperfect, or ongoing past tense, rather than the Spanish preterite tense, which would indicate that something already happened (E.g. Yo fui a nadar a la piscina = I went to swim at the pool).
Let's conclude today's lesson with a little quiz. Taking a few examples of the traditional future tense from our library, see if you can convert them to the present indicative form of the near future tense. Try to do them yourself prior to looking at the answers.
Future Tense:
No, abuelito. ¡Hoy haré el salto más alto del mundo!
No, Grandpa. Today I'll do the world's highest jump!
Caption 12, Guillermina y Candelario Una Amiga muy Presumida - Part 1
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Near Future Tense:
No, abuelito. ¡Hoy voy a hacer el salto más alto del mundo!
No, Grandpa. Today I'm going to do the world's highest jump!)
Future Tense:
Sin embargo de esto hablaremos en la próxima lección.
However, we will talk about this in the next lesson.
Caption 51, Carlos explica Diminutivos y Aumentativos Cap 1: Los sufijos
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Near Future Tense:
Sin embargo de esto vamos a hablar en la próxima lección
However, we're going to talk about this in the next lesson.
Future Tense:
Verán que mañana el estadio estará lleno.
You guys will see that tomorrow the stadium will be full.
Caption 45, Carlos explica Tuteo, ustedeo y voseo: Ustedes y vosotros
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Near Future Tense:
Van a ver que mañana el estadio va a estar lleno.
You guys are going to see that tomorrow the stadium is going to be full.
That's all for today. We hope that this lesson has helped you to feel more confident using the Spanish near future tense, which can come in quite handy when talking about your plans... and don't forget to write us with your suggestions and comments.
The Spanish future tense is one of the most straightforward tenses in Spanish, both in terms of knowing when to use it and how to conjugate it. Let's take a closer look at this tense.
The future tense in Spanish corresponds to the English construction with "will" plus a verb and is used to talk about actions that are slated to happen in the future or that someone has the intention to carry out. Simple English examples of this concept include: "Tomorrow, I will go to the store," or "Next week, it will rain." With this in mind, let's examine several examples of the future tense in Spanish:
y hoy les hablaré de una de mis pasiones:
and today, I'll talk to you about one of my passions:
Caption 4, Ana Carolina La meditación
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Yo creo que esto lo venderemos súper bien.
I think we'll sell this one really well.
Caption 44, Santuario para burros Tienda solidaria
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El botón [sic] la ayudará con su equipaje y lo subirá en un par de minutos a la habitación.
The porter will help you with your luggage and will take it up to the room in a couple of minutes.
Captions 61-62, Cleer y Lida Recepción de hotel
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Note that as English "will" constructions are often expressed with contractions (the personal pronoun plus apostrophe double l, such as "I'll," "we'll," etc.), many Spanish future tense verbs can be translated to English in this less formal fashion.
Conjugating most verbs in the future tense in Spanish is quite simple. You just take the verb's infinitive ("to" form) in its entirety and add the corresponding future tense ending. So, using the verbs in our previous examples, we'd start with their infinitive forms: hablar (to talk), vender (to sell), ayudar (to help), and subir (to take up). You will note that these infinitive verbs fall into all three infinitive verb categories: -ar, -er, and -ir.
Step two of the process of conjugating Spanish future tense verbs is to memorize the quite simple endings that correspond to their personal pronouns, which are as follows:
| Personal Pronoun: | Ending: |
|---|---|
| Yo: | -é |
| Tú: | -ás |
| Él/ella/usted: | -á |
| Nosotros/nosotras: | -emos |
| Vosotros/vosotras: | -éis |
| Ellos/ellas/ustedes: | -án |
Armed with this information, let's conjugate some future tense verbs using different verbs and personal pronouns than the examples above.
1. Suppose we want to say that more than one person "will see" something (with the personal pronoun ustedes, or plural "you"). We would take the infinitive verb ver (to see) and add the appropriate ending (-án) to get verán:
Mañana ustedes verán si nos... si nos medimos a ese, a ese reto.
Tomorrow you guys will see if we... if we measure up to that, to that challenge.
Captions 36-37, Festivaliando Mono Núñez - Part 13
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2. Now, let's imagine that you want to tell more than one person in a familiar environment what they'll "need." Oh— and you're in Spain, where the personal pronouns vosotros/as are the way to address more than one person as "you" informally. We'd take the verb for "to need" (necesitar) and the corresponding ending -éis to get necesitaréis:
Para empezar a hacer la tortilla española, necesitaréis los siguientes ingredientes:
To start to make the Spanish tortilla, you'll need the following ingredients:
Captions 8-9, Clara cocina Una tortilla española
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3. And finally, what if you would like to say with the tú (informal "you") form to someone what he or she "will discover"? You'd start with the verb descubrir (to discover) and add the -ás ending that goes with tú to get descubrirás:
Pronto lo descubrirás
Soon you'll discover it
Caption 68, X6 1 - La banda - Part 2
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As with all Spanish verb tenses, there are some irregular verbs in the future tense in Spanish, many of which are extremely common. That said, it would behoove you to memorize the following stems, which are used in lieu of these verbs' infinitives to conjugate the "top twelve" irregular future tense verbs in Spanish:
| Irregular Verb: | Stem: |
|---|---|
| caber (to fit): | cabr- |
| decir (to tell): | dir- |
| haber (to have/be): | habr- |
| hacer (to make/do): | har- |
| poder (to be able): | podr- |
| poner (to put): | pondr- |
| querer (to want): | querr- |
| saber (to know): | sabr- |
| salir (to leave): | saldr- |
| tener (to have): | tendr- |
| valer (to be worth): | valdr- |
| venir (to come): | vendr- |
Now, let's conjugate a few of these irregular Spanish future tense verbs:
1. How would we express "I'll say" in Spanish? Rather than the infinitive, we'd take the aforementioned stem for the Spanish verb decir, -dir, and add the ending that corresponds with yo (I), or -é, to get diré:
Primero, diré el verbo en infinitivo,
First, I'll say the verb in the infinitive,
Caption 38, Carlos explica El modo imperativo 1: Tú + vos
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2. How would we say "you'll have" in Spanish? Take the stem of the irregular verb tener (to have), tendr-, and add the ending for tú (you), -ás, to get: tendrás.
Sí, después de las clases en grupo, tendrás media hora de descanso
Yes, after the group classes, you'll have a half hour break
Caption 27, El Aula Azul Las actividades de la escuela - Part 1
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3. And finally, what if want to express that "we'll be able" to do something? We'll take podr-, the stem for the verb for "to be able" (poder), and add the ending for nosotros/as, -emos, to come up with podremos:
Con un poco de práctica, podremos aprender estas reglas muy fácilmente.
With a bit of practice, we will be able to learn these rules very easily.
Caption 55, Carlos explica Acentuación Cap. 3: La división en sílabas - Part 1
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Although the translations for Spanish verbs conjugated in the Spanish future tense almost always involve the word "will," the future tense in Spanish can occasionally be used to express doubt or disbelief, and, in such cases, corresponds more closely with the English concepts of "would," "could," "might," or "may." Such cases are typically quite clear from their contexts as inserting the word "will" would seem nonsensical. Let's take a look at a couple of examples:
¿No tendrás unos pesitos para mí?
You wouldn't have a few pesos for me?
Caption 23, Muñeca Brava 8 Trampas - Part 14
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Favio, ¿dónde estarás?
Favio, where could you be?
Caption 44, Yago 1 La llegada - Part 7
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Having said that, in the vast majority of the cases you will come across, the future tense in Spanish can be translated with "will."
We hope you've enjoyed this lesson on the future tense in Spanish. If you are interested in verb tenses, we recommend you check out our lessons on all of the Spanish verb tenses, beginning with the indicative verb tenses in Spanish and moving on to the Spanish subjunctive tenses. And, for an even deeper look into the future tense in Spanish with a plethora of example sentences, we recommend you check out this extended lesson by Javi on the future tense in Spanish as well as this lesson on an alternative to the Spanish future tense.
That's all for today! Don't forget to leave us your suggestions and comments, and estaremos en contacto (we'll be in touch).
When learning how to talk about the future in Spanish, you don’t always need the traditional future tense. Instead, Spanish speakers frequently use the "ir + a + Infinitive" construction, which is known as the near future tense or "futuro próximo". This structure is one of the easiest and most common ways to express future actions in everyday conversation. In this lesson, we’ll explain how it works and give you plenty of examples to start using it naturally.
In Spanish, the verb ir (to go) can be combined with the preposition a and the infinitive form of another verb to indicate future actions. Here’s the formula:
This structure is similar to saying "going to" in English. For example:
así que seguramente voy a aprender muchas cosas,
so I'm surely going to learn a lot of things,
Caption 14, Amaya Cata de vinos
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los alumnos van a visitar una exposición de f'... sobre feminismos
the students are going to visit an exhibit about f'... about feminism
Caption 104, Escuela BCNLIP Presentación de la directora - Part 2
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While Spanish has a dedicated future tense, the "ir + a + infinitive" construction is often used in everyday speech because it’s simpler and more conversational. In fact, it’s one of the most common ways to talk about the future.
Somos dos, nunca sola vas a ir Y ahora voy, sonriendo junto a ti Somos dos, juntos vamos a vivir
We are two, you will never go alone And now I go, smiling along with you We are two, together we will live
Captions 17-19, Liquits Desde Que
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Instead of using the future tense forms irás or viviremos, the Mexican band Liquits uses "ir + a + infinitive," which gives the song a more immediate, conversational tone.
Here are more examples to help you get comfortable with this construction:
¡Ay, buena idea! Yo voy a buscar a ver si tengo el teléfono en la base de datos.
Oh, good idea! I'm going to look and see if I have the phone number in the database.
Captions 70-71, Confidencial: Broma pesada Capítulo 4 - Part 8
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ella va a hacer la ensalada y yo voy a hacer la carne.
she is going to make the salad, and I am going to make the meat.
Caption 12, Misión Chef 2 - Pruebas - Part 7
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Vamos a ver algunas preguntas para que puedan ver las diferentes opciones que se pueden utilizar en diversos contextos.
We're going to look at some questions so that you can see the different options that can be used in various contexts.
Captions 12-14, Carlos explica 20 formas de decir sí sin decir sí
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El próximo año, ellos van a vivir en otro país.
Next year, they are going to live in another country.
Caption 42, Clase Aula Azul Planes para el futuro - Part 2
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To use this structure correctly, you need to know how to conjugate the verb ir for each person:
Yo voy a (I am going to)
Tú/Vos vas a (You are going to)
Él/Ella | Usted va a (He/She is going to | You [formal] are going to)
Nosotros/Nosotras vamos a (We are going to)
Vosotros/Vosotras vais a (You all are going to)
Ellos/Ellas | Ustedes van a (They | You all are going to)
While both forms are correct, "ir + a + infinitive" is more commonly used in spoken Spanish. It’s simpler and feels more natural in everyday conversation. So, next time you want to talk about your future plans, try using this structure!
That’s it for today. Ready to start using the "ir + a + infinitive" structure in your Spanish conversations? Leave us a comment with your own example sentences, and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
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