Tips 063: How To Use The Spanish Future Tense

After New Year’s Celebrations have finished, it is usually time to start thinking about the future.

If you want to talk about your future goals, resolutions or plans in Spanish, the Spanish future tense will be very useful.

On the podcast, this week, we introduce the Spanish future tense also known as the ‘futuro imperfecto.’

For me, this tense has often been confusing. I have never really been able to figure out when to use the future tense and when to use the future construction phrase ‘ir a + infinitivo’.

The answer is that in most instances they are nearly always interchangeable. But there are a few situations where one has preference over the other. And there is one example that we discussed when you should never use the future construction phrase.

Check out today’s podcast for further details.

If you would like to get more out of the podcast and take your Spanish to the next level you can get access to the Spanish podcast transcripts and English translations here.

Other podcast episodes mentioned in today’s tip:

• Tip 17 – A Hack For The Future.

Examples from the episode:

Goal – Meta (en fútbol).

Resolution – Propósito.

New year’s resolution – Propósito del año nuevo.

In shape, fit – En forma.

I’m fit – Estoy en forma.

Slacker or lazybones, lazy-head – Vago.

I’m a couch potato – Soy un vago.

The Spanish future conjugation of ‘estar’:

I will be – Yo estaré.

You will be – Tú estarás.

He will be – Él estará.

We will be – Nosotros estaremos.

You-all will be – Vosotros estaréis.

They will be – Ellos estarán.

Yeah we’ll see – Ya veremos.

I’m going to start to study Spanish next week – Voy a empezar a estudiar español la semana que viene. (correcto)

I’m going to start to study Spanish one of these days – Voy a empezar a estudiar español uno de estos días. (incorrecto)

I will start to study Spanish one of these days – Empezaré a estudiar español uno de estos días. (correcto)

I will start to study Spanish next week – Empezaré a estudiar español la semana que viene. (correcto)

If you hurry up, we will arrive at the movie on time – Si te das prisa, llegaremos a la película a tiempo.

If you hurry up, we are going to arrive at the movie on time – Si te das prisa, vamos a llegar la película a tiempo.

If you hurry up, we’ll arrive at the movie on time – Si te das prisa, llegamos a la película a tiempo.

How else could you use the spanish future tense?

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