Form and uses of the future imperfect. A fascinating tense

Spanish is a rich language that is distinguished by its various tenses.

Each one has its own uses that allow actions to be expressed in different contexts and moments in time.

In this article we will enter for the first time into the world of imperfect future, a fascinating tense.

we will see the shape of the imperfect future, both in its regular and irregular conjugation and we will also see in depth its uses.

In addition, you will practice each use of the future imperfect with exercises that we will give you. 

In Hispania, Spanish school We are experts in explaining the different tenses. 

We dedicate entire classes to each time and contrasting them in oral and practical situations.

If you want to deepen your learning of this language, come to our spanish courses  and you will see how in a short time your level improves a lot.

And now, get ready because you are going to learn a new verb tense. 

Let's welcome the imperfect future! 🙌🏻

What is the form of the future imperfect?

We start with the shape of this time. 

First of all, it is important to mention that this time has two names: future imperfect and future simple.

Surely if you have studied Spanish grammar you have seen both names and this may have caused confusion. Now you know that they refer to the same time 😉.

The morphology of the future imperfect indicative It's very simple. We start with the regular.

Regular

The form of the future imperfect differs from the rest of the tenses. What is the reason for this difference?

It is because its conjugation starts directly frominfinitive. That is, we will use the infinitive plus the future endings. 

Furthermore, these endingsthey are always the samefor all conjugations. 

What is wonderful? You don't have to memorize three different conjugations, butonly one.

To give you an idea, the formula for the simple future in Spanish is like this:

Person	Verb	Termination
I	infinitive	–AND
You	infinitive	–ACE
He/She/You	infinitive	–TO
We	infinitive	–EMOS
You	infinitive	–EIS
They/Them/You	infinitive	–AN

The right column are thesimple future endings. As we have indicated before, they are repeated for all conjugations.

Now let's see the shape of thefuture imperfect indicativewith examples ofverbs in-ar, -er, -ir.

Person	Verb	Termination
I	talk	–AND
You	be	–ACE
He/She/You	drive	–TO
We	begin	–EMOS
You	read	–EIS
They/Them/You	write	–AN

For example, theverbbein futureimperfectIt's like this:

I will be

you will be

He/she/you will be

we will be

You will be

They/they/you will be

Now let's see theimperfect future with examplesfrom the previous sentences:

• Tomorrow II will speakwith José.
• ¿you will eat with me on Saturday?
• She doesn't know yet, but someday she will drive.
• Us we will start classes coming soon.
• In the end not you will read the speech you?
• Next week my colleagues they will write a message to the boss.

See how easy the regular way is? 

What would the future of a verb reflective? Well, exactly the same, but adding the personal pronouns front.

For example, the verb stay it would be like this: 

I me I will stay

you you you will stay

He/she/you if will remain

we / us  we we will stay

you os you will stay

They/them/you  if will remain

Now let's go with the irregular shape, which is also very easy to learn.

Irregular

We have good news for you. 

The future simple only has 12 irregular verbs 🥳.

We are going to tell you our secret to easily memorize irregular future verbs. We the we match according to the first consonant with which they begin:

Put – Come – Do – Know

Power – Worth – Having – Exit

There we already have 8, 4 are missing. 

These remaining 4 are have, want, say and fit.

We also have a little trick to memorize these four verbs. We use this funny phrase to associate the verbs:

You (have) I want (want) say (say) that you don't fit (fit). 😁

If you use these tricks, you will surely have no problems remembering the 12 verbs.

And how are these 12 irregular verbs conjugated in the future tense?

The endings are the same as in the regular form. What changes is the infinitive.

This is the way of each one. 

Put – Pondr

Power – I could

Come – will come

Valer – Valdr

Do – Har

Credit – There will be

Know – Sabr

Exit – will go out

Have – will have

Want – Will

Say – Dir

Fit – Goat

Now you just have to add endings and that's it. As in the following examples:

• Tomorrow I will go out before work because I have a doctor's appointment.
• I don't know if there will be a lot of people at the next game.
• On Monday he we will say the truth. We can't continue like this.
• Surely you will have a good trip. Have a great time!
• ¿you will do What do I tell you next time?

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Future Imperfect Keywords

Now you know how to form the simple future in Spanish. Very good! It's a big step.

Now let's see what words we usually use this time.

These words are called temporary markers, although we also like to call them keywords.

If you have read our articles on other verb tenses in Spanish, you will know that each tense has its own own keywords.

In this case the key words refer to the future. Did you see our article on periphrasis Go to + infinitive?

It is another way of talking about the future and they share most of the keywords.

The key words of the simple future are the following:

• Tomorrow / The day after tomorrow

Tomorrow I'll see Carlos.

The day after tomorrow you will attend to class again.

• This afternoon / Tonight / This month / This weekend / This year…

this afternoon we will go around.

tonight I will stay with my friends.

This weekend they will an excursion through the mountains.

• Next week / Next week / Next year / Next year / Next Monday...

next week I'll be out.

next month I will start studying.

Both «the next/the next» as «what's coming» mean the same and are used the same.

• Future months / Future years / Future dates…

In march we will see each other more.

In june We will celebrate your birthday.

In 2030 I will have a new house.

• Within + amount of time / In + amount of time

Within two years My apartment will now be habitable. 

In four weeks I will travel to Uruguay.

¿in a thousand years Will the planet still be habitable?

Broadly speaking, these would be the key words that share the future simple and the verbal periphrasis Go to + infinitive.

Now, to the future simple we can add other keywords that talk about a non-concrete future:

• Coming soon / soon / in the future / someday…

Coming soon I'll go see you, I hope it's soon.

someday I'll get my driving license, it's a matter of time and practice.

Use 1 of the future imperfect: talk about future actions

you know how conjugate the imperfect future in spanish and the keywords that usually accompany him.

Now let's delve into the uses of the future imperfect.

How should this time be used? How is it different from periphrasis?go to + infinitive?

Don't worry because you will see that soon these questions will be resolved. 

The main use of the future is talk about future actions. It's obvious, right? 😄

Now, there are different ways of talking about the future, mainly we can distinguish between plans and predictions.

Do you want to see how they are different? Let's go there!

Future plans

with him imperfect future indicative We can talk about future plans. That is, of things we think we are going to do.

They could be future plans close or far.

Examples:

• Tomorrow I will play to football with my friends.
• next month I will visit to my friend in Cantabria.
• In 10 years I'm sure I will be married.

Difference between Go to + infinitive and future imperfect

In Spanish we have different types of future in perfect and imperfect tenses:

On the one hand, we have the periphrasis Go to + infinitive and the future imperfect, which now we will see their differences.

On the other hand, we also have the future compound indicative, also known as future perfect. We will see this time in detail in another article 😉.

And what about the subjunctive mood? There is no future of the subjunctive?

The truth is that yes, there is future imperfect subjunctive, but this time was left in disuse.

In fact, it is no longer even studied in grammar books or taught. So we will choose this route. One less tense you have to learn!

Now that you know the different tenses in the future, let's talk about the difference between Go to + infinitive and the future simple.

With the periphrasis Go to + infinitive we also talk about future plans. So how are they different?

With Go to + infinitive we show a very high security in that plan. We are sure that it will happen. Additionally, it is often used with insurance plans. near future.

On the other hand, with the future simple the level of security for that plan to be made it's not that high and can be used for both close and distant plans.

So that you understand it, we are going to use the example of before visiting the friend in Cantabria.

We can say it both ways and both are correct, but each one has different nuances:

• next month I'm going to visit to my friend in Cantabria.
• next month I will visit to my friend in Cantabria.

In the first, by using Go to + infinitive we are showing that this plan is well programmed and sure that it will be done. I probably already have the days reserved and the plane ticket purchased.

In the second, when using the simple future the probability that you will make the trip is very high, although it is not 100% certain. Maybe I still don't know what days I will go, or I haven't bought the flight yet.

Activity: What will you do next summer?

Let's put it into practice this use of future plans with the future imperfect.

What will you do next summer? 

In the following exercise you have 5 sentences that answer this question. You must drag the verb in the future to its corresponding space.

Luck!

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Predictions

With the future imperfect we can also talk about predictions.

What are predictions? They are statements made about future events that are expected to occur.

Predictions are usually based on observing past patterns, current data, or analyzing certain trends. 

In various fields, such as meteorology, economics, science, sports or even in everyday life, people make predictions to anticipate possible outcomes.

However, predictions do not guarantee the future with absolute certainty, since we can never be 100% sure of what will happen in the future.

some prediction examples They would be the following:

• In 2050 all cars they will be automatic and if will drive alone.
• In the future we will be accustomed to working with intelligent robots.
• In a few years will arise new jobs for the development of artificial intelligence.
• In a few decades, Valencia will be a technological power.

What do you think of these predictions? Will they happen or not?

These examples are from a long term future. However, we can also make predictions of a near future. This is very common in meteorology:

• Tomorrow it will be hot.
• next week it will rain.
• on saturday temperatures will drop.

Shall we practice? Weather forecasts

Now we are going to practice weather predictions with the following activity. 

You have to write the infinitive in parentheses in the correct future form.

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Use 2 of the future imperfect: probability in the present

Now you know the main use of the future, which is to talk about future actions, both in plans and predictions.

But there is a second use that is used a lot. 

This use does not refer to the future, but to the probability in present.

Many times they ask us something in the present and we don't know the answer. In that case we use the future tense to respond. 

It is a probability, that is, we are not sure of it but is what we think.

Let's see it with different examples between two people speaking:

A) Do you know where Marisa is? B) I don't know, will be about to arrive.

A) Why does Ramón seem so sad? B) No idea, will have problems with his girlfriend.

A) Why does he always order caffeine-free coffee? B) I don't know, I guess the caffeine will put nervous

A) I can't find my cell phone, too bad! B) Don't worry. Surely will be in your house.

As you see, the verbs of the person A are in present, and those of the person B in future. 

But this future does not speak of a future time, but of probability or assumption in present tense.

It is very useful to know this use when someone asks us something and we don't know the answer. 

Instead of just answering “I don't know,” you can now use probability and make the dialogue more dynamic.

It is also effective for making assumptions without anyone asking us, as in the last example, about the location of the mobile phone.

A curiosity about this use of probability is that sometimes the question can be asked directly in future.

When this happens, it is because we know that the person we ask don't know the answer, but we ask because we simply want to talk or share our doubt with someone.

We Spaniards are like that, we love to talk and ask questions even when we know that our interlocutor doesn't know what to answer 😆.

Examples:

A) What time will be right now? B) No idea, it will be 2:00 p.m. or so.

A) From where will take out Do you have so much money to buy that big car? B) Namely… 

Practice probability

In the following exercise you have to use the appropriate infinitive and conjugate it in the future tense to answer each question with probability.

Let's see how you get on!

If you have made it this far, we congratulate you. Ya you know everything you need about the imperfect future, from its form to its uses.

Now you just have to put it into practice in your daily life.

Do you know a place where you would use it a lot? In Hispania, Spanish school. Here you would speak Spanish every day with your teachers and classmates. 

There is no better way to learn a language than by attending a quality school and practicing it in all communication skills, as we do in our courses.

Finally, we encourage you to comment if you liked the article or if you have any questions about this topic.

You can also tell us about some plans to practice in the future.

What will you do on your next vacation? Will you come to Valencia?

Comment and we'll talk.

Have a good day!

Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school. 

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