21.1 What is the Simple Future Tense?
You've already learned one way to express future actions using structures like Voy a comer en el nuevo restaurante, "I'm going to eat in the new restaurant." But there's another way to talk about future events: with the simple future tense. Comeré en el nuevo restaurante uses comer in this future tense, and translates to "I will eat in the new restaurant." The distinction between the future tenses is as simple as "I am going to eat..." versus "I will eat..." in English.
The Future
The simple future tense indicates upcoming actions or actions that will occur.
21.2 Simple Future Tense Endings
Below are the endings for all regular verbs in the simple future tense:
Regular Simple Future Tense Endings
| Pronouns | -AR verb endings | -ER verb endings | -IR verb endings |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -é | -é | -é |
| tú | -ás | -ás | -ás |
| él/ella/Ud. | -á | -á | -á |
| nosotros/as | -emos | -emos | -emos |
| vosotros/as | -éis | -éis | -éis |
| ellos/ellas/Uds. | -án | -án | -án |
So how do we use them? Instead of grabbing the stem of the infinitive, we're just going to add endings to the end of the infinitive itself:
21.3 Regular Verbs in the Simple Future
Here are some standard regular verbs conjugated in the simple future tense:
That's it! What an easy step on the road to becoming a VerbMaster!
21.4 Using the Simple Future
Below are some examples of how you can use the simple future tense in the real world:
Yo hablaré con el cartero sobre su comportamiento.
I will speak to the mailman about his behavior.
Los chicos no comerán los arándanos; les dan dolor de estómago.
The kids won't eat the blueberries; they give them a stomachache.
Nosotros viviremos en la casa del árbol con el ermitaño.
We will live in the treehouse with the hermit.
More good news: There's only one small group of irregulars for the simple future! We'll cover those in the next lesson.
Practice Time!
Master these verb conjugations from Lesson 21