The Future: Near and Simple

Spanish has two everyday ways to talk about what will happen, and both are on the AQA specification.

• Near future — ir a + infinitive. This is "going to": plans and intentions, especially in speech.
• Simple future — one word, the infinitive plus an ending. This is "will": predictions and promises.

Look at the same idea in each form:

• Voy a estudiar esta noche. → I'm going to study tonight. (a plan)
• Estudiaré medicina en el futuro. → I will study medicine in the future. (a prediction)

Both are correct and both are common. The near future feels closer and more certain; the simple future can sound more distant or formal. Knowing both lets you vary your Spanish, which lifts your marks in writing and speaking.

The near future is built from three pieces: the present tense of ir (to go), the word a, and an infinitive.

Subject	ir (present)	+ a + infinitive
yo	voy	voy a hablar
tú	vas	vas a comer
él / ella / usted	va	va a salir
nosotros/as	vamos	vamos a viajar
vosotros/as	vais	vais a estudiar
ellos/as / ustedes	van	van a volver

Only ir changes; the second verb always stays in the infinitive.

• Este fin de semana voy a visitar a mis abuelos. → This weekend I'm going to visit my grandparents.
• Vamos a comer en un restaurante. → We're going to eat in a restaurant.
• ¿Vas a jugar al tenis mañana? → Are you going to play tennis tomorrow?

The a is essential: voy comer is wrong; it must be voy a comer.

The simple future is refreshingly regular. Take the whole infinitive and add the endings below. The endings are identical for -ar, -er and -ir verbs.

Subject	Ending	hablar → speak	comer → eat	vivir → live
yo	-é	hablaré	comeré	viviré
tú	-ás	hablarás	comerás	vivirás
él / ella / usted	-á	hablará	comerá	vivirá
nosotros/as	-emos	hablaremos	comeremos	viviremos
vosotros/as	-éis	hablaréis	comeréis	viviréis
ellos/as / ustedes	-án	hablarán	comerán	vivirán

Every ending except -emos carries a written accent. That accent is not optional: hablaré, comerás, vivirán.

• Algún día viviré en España. → One day I will live in Spain.
• Mañana lloverá en el norte. → Tomorrow it will rain in the north.
• Ellos llegarán a las seis. → They will arrive at six.

A group of common verbs change their stem before the future endings. The endings stay exactly the same (-é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án); only the base changes.

Infinitive	Future stem	yo form (example)	Meaning
tener	tendr-	tendré	to have
hacer	har-	haré	to do/make
poder	podr-	podré	to be able
poner	pondr-	pondré	to put
salir	saldr-	saldré	to leave
venir	vendr-	vendré	to come
decir	dir-	diré	to say
querer	querr-	querré	to want
saber	sabr-	sabré	to know
haber	habr-	habrá	there will be

Worked examples:

• Tendremos un examen la próxima semana. → We will have an exam next week.
• Habrá mucha gente en la fiesta. → There will be a lot of people at the party. (habrá = "there will be", from hay)
• ¿A qué hora saldrás? → What time will you leave?

Both futures are correct, so the exam rewards using each in the right place and mixing them for variety.

Use the near future for…	Use the simple future for…
plans and intentions	predictions about what will be
the near term	more distant or formal statements
everyday speech	promises and resolutions

• Voy a llamar a mi amigo. → I'm going to call my friend. (an intention right now)
• El próximo año habrá más turistas. → Next year there will be more tourists. (a prediction)
• Te ayudaré con los deberes. → I will help you with the homework. (a promise)

A neat exam tip: in a piece of writing, use the near future when describing your plans and the simple future when predicting or promising. Showing both, correctly, demonstrates a wider range of grammar.

1. Dropping the future accents

The simple future depends on its accents: hablaré, comerás, vivirán. Writing hablare or comeras is a spelling error, and hablare is actually a different (rare) verb form. Keep the accent on every form except nosotros.

2. Using the regular stem for irregular verbs

Irregular verbs never use the plain infinitive in the future. It is tendré, not teneré; haré, not haceré; saldré, not saliré. Learn the ten stems as a block.

3. Leaving out the "a" in the near future

The near future is ir a + infinitive. Voy comer is incomplete; write voy a comer. The little a is doing real work.

4. Conjugating the second verb in the near future

After ir a, the verb stays in the infinitive. Voy a como is wrong; it must be voy a comer. Only ir changes for the person.

5. Accenting the nosotros form

The nosotros ending is -emos with no accent: hablaremos, viviremos. Adding an accent (hablarémos) is incorrect. It is the one future ending that stays plain.