Futuro Simple

Mañana viajaré a Sevilla

This is the original Spanish future tense.

¿Cuándo hablarás con Mónica? – When will you talk to Monica?

Hablaré con Mónica más tarde – I’ll talk to Monica later

As it was mentioned in the Section 5 Lesson 1, Spanish possesses three common ways of talking about future events:

a. Presente: Mañana viajo a Sevilla

b. Futuro Próximo: Mañana voy a viajar a Sevilla

c. Futuro Simple: Mañana viajaré a Sevilla

You already know, how to use the first two. There is no critical difference between all of them. They are just three options of referring to the future.

Now let’s focus on the native Future Simple tense.

Forms

Endings in Futuro Simple don’t depend on the infinitive group. All three verb groups (ar, er, ir) have the same forms.

terminar

yo – terminaré

tú – terminarás

él, ella, usted – terminará

nosotros – terminaremos

vosotros – terminaréis

ellos, ellas, ustedes – terminarán

volver

yo – volver…

tú – volver…

él, ella, usted – volver…

nosotros – volver…

vosotros – volver…

ellos, ellas, ustedes – volver…

dormir

yo – dormir…

tú – dormir…

él, ella, usted – dormir…

nosotros – dormir…

vosotros – dormir…

ellos, ellas, ustedes – dormir…

The stem (verb base) to conjugate verbs in Futuro Simple is the whole infinitive. It remains without changes. You don’t have to cut off it’s endings ar, er or ir, like you do with other Spanish tenses. You just grab the complete infinitive and add the personal endings.

yo: é

tú: ás

él, ella, usted: á

nosotros: emos

vosotros: éis

ellos, ellas, ustedes: án

El año que viene mis padres me comprarán un coche – Next year my parents will buy me a car

Mañana no iremos al colegio ya que es festivo – Tomorrow we won’t go to school, because it’s a holiday

Quique nunca cambiará – Quique will never change

Este año terminaré la carrera – This year I’ll finish my university degree

No sé si aprenderéis español este año – I don’t know, if you’ll learn Spanish this year

Try it yourself:

Juanjo says, that he’ll call me soon

On the weekend we’ll go to the beach

Will you explain grammar to us? (usted)

Where will they change the money?

Use of Futuro Simple

Futuro Simple (yo comeré) is used just like the English Future Simple (I will eat). In contrast, Futuro Próximo (yo voy a comer) is equal to the English to be going to construction (I’m going to eat).

Futuro Próximo (yo voy a comer) is just a very common substitution of Futuro Simple (yo comeré). In most cases, both tenses can be used interchangeably. In real life, Futuro Próximo is used even more often. However, there is slight historical difference between Futuro Próximo and Futuro Simple.

Initially, Futuro Próximo (yo voy a comer) wasn’t considered a specific grammar tense. It was just an expression meaning some intention to do something. People got so used to applying it when talked about future actions, that it replaced Futuro Simple (yo comeré).

However, Futuro Simple isn’t an obsolete tense. It can come in handy, when you talk about actions that haven’t been planned beforehand. For, example, in conditional phrases.

Si tengo dinero, me compraré un coche – If I have money, I’ll buy a car

It wouldn’t be very correct to use Futuro Próximo:

Si tengo dinero, me voy a comprar un coche – If I have money, I’m going to buy a car

If you use Futuro Próximo, you show, that a decision to do something has already been made. If you use Futuro Simple, you don’t emphasize, whether a decision has been made or not. It’s just a simple future action, without any intention context.

In most cases, there is no big difference between when to apply Futuro Simple and Futuro Próximo.

Sentences with Futuro Simple can contain the same time markers, which are used with Futuro Próximo.

mañana – tomorrow

pasado mañana – the day after tomorrow

el mes / año que viene – next month / year

el mes / año próximo (or el próximo mes / año) – next month / year

más tarde – later

en el año 2045 – in 2045

luego – later, afterwards

dentro de tres meses (or en tres meses) – in three months