Spanish Future Verb Tenses: A Quick Guide and Overview - Busuu (2024)

FAQs

How do you memorize future tense in Spanish? ›

Spanish uses the combination of ir (“to go”) in present tense + a (“to”) + an infinitive to talk about things that you're going to do. This case is very easy, because as far as conjugations go, it only requires the memorization of ir in the present tense.

Regular verbs in the future tense are conjugated by adding the following endings to the infinitive form of the verb: -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án. There are twelve common verbs that are irregular in the future tense. Their endings are regular, but their stems change.

The imperfect tense in Spanish is used to: Talk about habits in the past when the duration of the action is indeterminate or unspecified (similar to “would” or “used to” + verb in English) Describe people, places, circ*mstances, or time of the day in a past context. Express age in a past context.

In general you will hear the Ir method used more often in Mexico and much of the rest of Latin America, while in Spain it is more common for native speakers to use the future simple.

Por is used to express motion, transit, proximity, estimated durations, reasons, motives, and the means of achieving something. It is also used for prices, exchanges, rates, and multiplication. Para is used to indicate purposes, functions, destinations, deadlines, and recipients.

The Spanish future perfect tense is formed in much the same way as English's: the future indicative form of haber followed by the past participle. So "I will have left" would be "habré salido."

1. The Spanish Past Tenses. The difference between the preterite and imperfect past tenses can seem daunting to many Spanish learners at first, mainly because English has no perfect equivalent. And most people don't learn advanced grammar in their native language.

When learning Spanish, the present tense is the first tense you'll learn, followed by the past tense and then the future tense. It can be daunting at first, but as you begin to understand the conjugations, they become easier, and you'll start to do them without much thought.

How do I know when to use preterite or imperfect? ›

The imperfect refers to an action or state that was ongoing, repeated or in progress at a specific moment in the past. The preterite expresses one-off actions and sequential events in the past.

When speaking about ages in the past, the imperfect tense normally is used. Use of the preterite suggests the time when someone turned a certain age.

Remembering future tense – keywords WILL/SHALL/MAY

Keywords that show a piece has been written in future tense include WILL, SHALL and MAY. The future shall be taken care of by writing a will. Future = shall, will.

The Spanish future perfect tense is formed in much the same way as English's: the future indicative form of haber followed by the past participle. So "I will have left" would be "habré salido."

Voy a ir – I'm going to go.