Talking about the Future: the Future Indicative Tense

The future tense is formed by adding endings on to the infinitive verb. These endings are:

• yo -- é
  tú -- ás
  él, ella, usted -- á
  nosotros -- emos
  vosotros -- éis
  ellos/ellas, ustedes -- án

There is only one set of endings regardless of whether the infinitive ends in -ar, -er or -ir.

Here are the three model verbs completely conjugated in the future indicative tense for all persons. Remember, they are models and the same endings can be used with any regular verb, regardless if it ends in -ar, -er or -ir.

Remember to follow these steps to conjugate correctly:

• 1. Identify the infinitive.
  2. Add the following endings on to the infinitive form:
  

	HABLAR	COMER	VIVIR
yo	hablaré	comeré	viviré
tú	hablarás	vivirás	comerás
él/ella, Ud.	hablará	comerá	vivirá
nosotros/nosotras	hablaremos	comeremos	viviremos
vosotros/vosotras	hablaréis	comeréis	viviréis
ellos/ellas, Uds.	hablarán	comerán	vivirán

• Yo hablaré-- I will speak
  Ella comerá -- She will eat
  Nosotros viviremos -- We will live

There's an important number of irregular forms, including haber (habré, habrás, habrá, habremos, habréis, habrán) which must be memorised. To form the future tense of irregular verbs, add the endings on to the irregular stem.

Here are the most common irregular future tense verbs. Note that the irregular stem is often a contracted form of the infinitive:

• caber -- to fit -- yo cabré, etc.
  poder -- to be able to/can -- yo podré, etc.
  poner -- to put/to place -- yo pondré, etc.
  decir -- to say/to tell -- yo diré, etc.
  salir -- to go out/to come out/to leave -- yo saldré, etc.
  hacer --  to make/to do -- yo haré, etc.
  querer -- to want/to love -- yo querré, etc.
  tener -- to have -- yo tendré, etc.
  valer -- to be worth --  yo valdré, etc.
  saber -- to know -- yo sabré, etc.
  venir -- to come -- yo vendré, etc.

Remember, unlike most conjugations, the future tense is formed by adding endings on to the infinitive verb.