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Simple Future Tense: Irregular verbs by Simple Spanish Tips

There are two types of Future Tenses… The Near/Immediate Future (used to talk about what you are going to do) and the The Simple Future Tense (used to talk about what you will do). The Simple Future is one of my favourite tenses because there’s only one set of endings… for EVERY SINGLE VERB in the Spanish dictionary. However, as always, there are a few irregular rebels that don’t use the infinitive and that’s what we’ll look at in this blog.

Firstly, a recap on the endings for the Simple Future Tense:

For regular verbs in the Simple Future, you would simply take the infinitive and add on the following endings:

Infinitive + é/ás/á/emos/éis/án

For example:

  • (Yo) hablaré –I will speak
  • (Tú) comerás –You will eat
  • (Él/ella/usted) vivirá –He/she/it will live & you (polite) will live
  • (Nosotros/as) tomaremos –We will take
  • (Vosotros/as) beberéis –All of you will drink
  • (Ellos/ellas/ustedes) pedirán –They will ask for & you all (polite) will ask for

However, for the irregular verbs, there is a ‘tweak’ to the infinitive and then you add on the same set of endings.

I like to learn these verbs in groups that behave similarly:

GroupNew stem
Replace the final vowel with ‘d‘:
Tener
Venir
Poder
Salir
Valer
Poner		Tendr-
Vendr-
Podr-
Saldr-
Valdr-
Pondr-
Drop the final vowel from the infinitive:

Saber
haber
querer
caber		Sabr-
Habr-
Querr-
Cabr-
Drop two letters from the infinitive:

Decir
Hacer		Dir-
Har-

So here’s an example of one in action:

Tener- To have

  • (Yo) tendré – I will have
  • (Tú) tendrás– You will have
  • (Él/ella/usted) tendrá– He/she/it will have & you (polite) will have
  • (Nosotros/as) tendremos– We will have
  • (Vosotros/as) tendréis– All of you will have
  • (Ellos/ellas/ustedes) tendrán– They will have & you all (polite) will have

Note:

Any verbs that contain these infinitives will work the same:

For example:

Hacer TenerDecir
Rehacer: Rehar–
Deshacer: Deshar–		Detener: Detendr–
Retener: Retendr–		Predecir: Predir–
Maldecir: Maldir–

Here’s a few sentences, just to really help it sink in:

  • Mañana mis primos vendrán para ayudarme con la fiesta.
  • Tomorrow my cousins will come to help me with the party.

*

  • Retendremos los documentos para el viaje de vuelta.
  • We will retain the documents for the return trip.

*

  • Desharé las maletas antes de acostarme.
  • I will unpack (undo) the suitcases before going to bed.

It’s that Simple!

Why not get more familiar with the irregular verbs in the Simple Future Tense, by having a go at the following activity:

Practice the Simple Future with Irregular verbs here

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