How can I express the future in Spanish?
*Intermediate*
There are several ways you can express future actions in Spanish, but Be careful! don’t say: “estoy yendo mañana”.
In Spanish you can express the future using several tenses:
- Present tense by adding time word:
“Voy a la oficina mañana” I’m going to the office tomorrow.
“Hablo mañana con Juan” I’m talking with Juan tomorrow.
- The structure: ir+a+infinitive verb:
“Voy a ir a la oficina (mañana)” (Tomorrow) I’m going to the office.
“Voy a hablar con Juan (mañana)” (Tomorrow) I’m talking with Juan.
- The future tense:
Stem+ future endings:
-é | -emos |
-ás | -éis |
-á | -án |
For example:
If you want to say I’ll go to the office, that would be:
“Iré a la oficina”
Or I’ll talk with Juan tomorrow would be:
“Hablaré mañana con Juan”
As you noticed, we don’t need -ing verbs like, going (yendo) talking (hablando), because most of the time we use these conjugations to decribe developing activities or temporary actions such as:
“¿Qué está haciendo Juan? -Está escribiendo un informe”
What is Juan doing? He’s writing a report
So, now that you know the various options to express the future in Spanish, try to practice them and listen to how people use them.
By Yenny Urrego – Espanovo Team