Futuro Próximo

Mañana voy a descansar

It’s time to learn the Spanish future tense called Futuro Próximo.

Until this moment, we’ve been building sentences exclusively in Present. This lesson opens up a series of lectures dedicated to Spanish tenses. From now on, they will be swapping very often.

All that you know by now, will be applied, speaking in different tenses.

Spanish future tenses

There are three common ways in Spanish to describe future actions.

a. Presente

Pronto viajo a España – I’m traveling to Spain soon

To say something regarding to the future, sometimes you don’t even need any special future tense. You can use just Presente Simple.

This is what we’ve been doing all this time, since very first lessons.

Mañana es martes – Tomorrow is Tuesday

¿Me ayudas? – Will you help me?

b. Futuro Próximo

ir + a + infinitive

Pronto voy a viajar a España – I’m going to travel to Spain soon

It’s a special grammar construction, that means an intention to do something. It resembles the English to be going to.

¿Me vas a ayudar? – Are you going to help me?

c. Futuro Simple

Pronto viajaré a España – I will travel to Spain soon

This is the original Spanish future tense. In fact, it’s the only future tense as a verbal form. It’s similar to the English will do.

¿Me ayudarás? – Will you help me?

While Futuro Simple is the authentic Spanish future tense, the two other options (Presente and Futuro Próximo) are only a substitution of Futuro Simple. Surprisingly enough, they became so popular, that in the modern Spanish they are used even more often and in almost the same circumstances.

As Futuro Próximo is the main subject of this lesson, let’s now focus on it.

ir + a + infinitive

To build a sentence in Futuro Próximo you should use the verb ir in a needed form, apply the a preposition, and then use an infinitive.

Let’s take the verb comer and conjugate it in Futuro Próximo.

comer – to eat

yo voy a comer

tú vas a comer

él, ella, usted va a comer

nosotros vamos a comer

vosotros vais a comer

ellos, ellas, ustedes van a comer

Conjugate the following verbs by yourself:

pensar

yo …

tú …

él, ella, usted …

nosotros …

vosotros …

ellos, ellas, ustedes …

escribir

yo …

tú …

él, ella, usted …

nosotros …

vosotros …

ellos, ellas, ustedes …

llegar

yo …

tú …

él, ella, usted …

nosotros …

vosotros …

ellos, ellas, ustedes …

Voy a comer – I’m going to eat

David va a celebrar su cumpleaños – David is going to celebrate his birthday

¿Qué vas a hacer hoy? – What are you going to do today?

¿Cuándo vais a terminar la escuela? – When are you going to finish school?

Try it yourself:

I’m going to sleep

What are you going to read?

They are going to dance

We are going to drink coffee

What time is she going to come?

Are you going to go to Madrid?

My son is going to be rich

Haber in Futuro Próximo

Every verb can be transformed into Futuro Próximo, even hay. Hay is used to say that something exists somewhere.

Cerca de mi casa hay una tienda

Hay is Presente of haber. Haber is the infinitive. You should remember one thing about the verb haber – it’s impersonal, and when it’s applied in any tense, it takes only one form, third person singular.

This is how it’s used in Futuro Próximo:

Cerca de mi casa va a haber una tienda

Even if you need to say two shops or more, the verb haber remains the same.

Cerca de mi casa va a haber dos tiendas

Don’t say: van a haber dos tiendas

Try it yourself:

There is going to be a party here

There are going to be three parks in my city

Time markers

There are some words that often accompany sentences in the future tense.

mañana – tomorrow

Mañana voy a cenar con Claudia – I’m going to have dinner with Claudia

Try it yourself:

What are you going to do tomorrow?

pasado mañana – the day after tomorrow

Pasado mañana van a llegar mis primos – The day after tomorrow my cousins are going to come

Try it yourself:

Elisa is going to wash the car the day after tomorrow

la semana que viene – next week

La semana que viene nos va a visitar mi tío – My uncle is going to visit us next week

La semana can be replaced by other time periods, such as el mes or el año.

El año que viene van a crecer los sueldos – Salaries will rise next year

Try it yourself:

We are going to meet next month

la semana próxima – next week

It’s the same as la semana que viene, but the adjective próximo is used, meaning next. Próximo can be placed either before or after the noun.

el mes próximo – next month

el año próximo – next year

El mes próximo vamos a vivir mejor – Next month we are going to live better

La próxima semana Julio va a ir al campo – Next week Julio is going to go to the village

Try it yourself:

We are going to buy furniture next Saturday

Alex and Ana are going to get married next year

combinations with pronouns este, esta

esta noche – this night

este mes – this month

este viernes – this Friday

este fin de semana – this weekend

este año – this year

este otoño – this autumn

Este domingo me voy a quedar en casa – This Sunday I’m going to stay at home

Don’t say: En este domingo

Try it yourself:

What are you (vosotros) going to do this weekend?

I’m going to listen to music tonight

dentro de – in

El jefe va a volver dentro de dos días – The boss is going to come back in two days

Dentro de un año me voy a graduar de la universidad – I’m going to graduate from the university in a year

Try it yourself:

The film is going to start in one hour

We are going to receive the visa in three weeks

en = dentro de

Instead of dentro de you can use en.

Voy a irme en cinco minutos – I’m going to go away in five minutes

Ana va a terminar el proyecto en tres días – Ana is going to finish the project in three days

En and dentro de have the same meaning. In Latin America en is used more often.

Try it yourself:

The dinner is going to be ready in ten minutes

pronto – soon

Pronto vamos a ir a una fiesta – We are going to go to a party soon

Try it yourself:

You (usted) are going to be the prime minister very soon