Future simple

WE now come to the classic Future Simple tense.

Some people learn this first as the ‘proper’ way to speak about the future, but as I have tried to explain in the previous two articles that there are a number of different ways of referring to the future, this tense being just one of them.

Before looking at how we use it though, let’s look at how we form this tense.

Here we have some good news (honestly)! which is that all three groups of verbs (ar, er, and ir) have exactly the same endings as each other, so we only have to learn one set of endings, instead of the usual three.

The other main thing to realize about the formation of this tense is that the endings are added to the whole infinitive, instead of to the root of the verb.

What on earth is she talking about? I hear you ask. Well, this is what I mean.

You may remember that in the present tense, along with all the other tenses we’ve looked at before, we chop off the ending (the –ar, -er, -ir bit) to get to what we call the ‘root’ of the verb, that is, the bit that’s left.

So, with the verb ‘hablar’ (to speak) we chop off the ‘ar’ and end up with the root ‘habl’.

We then add the appropriate ending to this root (hablo, hablas, hablado, hablaba, hablé etc. etc.)

Well, for the future simple tense we don’t do this; instead we add the endings on to the entire infinitive ‘hablar’. Now we’ve started with that verb, let’s get to it, this is what it looks like.

Hablaré (I will speak). Hablarás (you will speak – familiar singular).

Hablará (He, she, or formal you, will speak).

Hablaremos (We will speak). Hablaréis (You will speak – familar plural).

Hablarán (They, or formal you plural will speak).

As I have already said, all three groups of verbs do the same thing, so ‘I will drink’ is beberé; ‘he will write’ – escribirá; ‘we will play’ – jugaremos; ‘you (plu) will read’ – leeréis; ‘they will live’ – vivirán.

Well, that’s all pretty straightforward.

It might help you to remember the endings if you notice that they are very similar to the present tense of ‘haber’ (he, has, ha, hemos, habéis, han). If that doesn’t help you, forget about it.

There is small number of irregular verbs in this tense – here’s a list of the main ones. I’ve just put the first person singular form, but all the other forms follow on in the same way:

Decir – diré; hacer – haré; poder – podré, poner – pondré; querer – querré; saber – sabré; salir – saldré; tener – tendré; valer – valdré; venir – vendré.

Well, they’re not too bad, just a case of swallowing the medicine really. It could be a lot worse.

And finally, when do we use this lovely new tense? Here’s the official explanation – ‘When predicting a certain future’ (what future is certain, you may well ask). ‘Llegarán mañana - They’ll arrive tomorrow’.

We also use it for a couple of other fiddly bits, for example expressing amazement: ‘¡Será possible! - Can it be possible!’

I’ve run out of space, but will come back to this tense briefly next week, before soldiering on to yet more ways to talk about the future.

See you then.