 Home
Grammar index
Spanish dictionary
Basic Spanish phrases
Translate
|
|
Future tense: irregular forms
Most Spanish verbs are completely regular as far as the future tense goes. A handful of verbs have irregular forms. However:
The Spanish verbs with irregular future stems are as follows. Note that compounds of these verbs follow the same pattern (e.g. soponer > sopondré etc):
| Verb | Future stem | Example future tense form | |
|---|---|---|---|
| caber (to fit) | cabr- | cabrá it'll fit | |
| decir (to say) | dir- | dirá que... he/she'll say that... | |
| hacer (to do, make) | har- | lo haré mañana I'll do it tomorrow | |
| poder (to be able to) | podr- | ¿podrás? will you be able to? | |
| poner (to put, get/make1) | pondr- | lo pondré en la mesa I'll put it on the table nos pondremos de acuerdo we'll agree a time (etc) | |
| querer (to want, love) | querr- | querrán venir they'll want to come | |
| saber (to know) | sabr- | Raul sabrá Raul will know ¿sabrás qué hora es? would you know what time it is?2 | |
| salir (to leave, go out) | saldr- | saldré mañana I'll go out tomorrow | |
| tener (to have, have to) | tendr- | tendré dinero I'll have some money tendrás que preguntar you'll have to ask | |
| valer (to be worth) | valdr- | valdrá la pena it'll be worth it | |
| venir (to come) | vendr- | vendremos we'll come | |
| haber (to have -en/-ed) | habr- | habrá terminado he/she'll have finished |
Note that many of these irregular forms involve a "shortening" of the infinitive, typically removing the final vowel of the infinitive3.
Practise irregular future tense forms
On the next page, you can practise these irregular forms with an irregular future tense exercise which also includes revision of the regular future tense forms you've seen so far.
1. The verb poner has a number of different translations
depending on the exact use.
2. This is an example of an additional function that the future tense has in Spanish, namely
to mitigate a request (that is, "make it sound less direct"). The rough equivalent in English
is to use would you...?, or add a mitigating phrase such as ...at all?, ...by any chance?.
3. The insertion of the epenthetic d is in some sense a
"natural" phonological process, since the non-trilled (flapped) r does not generally
occur after consonants articulated at the same place ([n], [l], [s]) in Spanish.
The trilled r (cf. Enrique) may ultimately derive from an earlier dr sequence.
The shortening of infinitives was apparently more common in an earlier stage of the language,
with forms such as entendremos (nowadays entenderemos).
Nowadays, only the "irregular" forms above survive.
For more information on the historical development of the Spanish future tense,
see Lyons, C. G. (1978), A look into the Spanish Future, Lingua 46:225-244.
Español-Inglés home
Introduction to Spanish verbs
Spanish-English dictionary