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 mañanaI’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:

-emos

-ás

-éis

-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

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