Updated on August 7, 2023
How to form the future tense of irregular verbs in Spanish
If you’ve been studying Spanish for a while, you’re probably already familiar with the present tense and past tense. What’s the logical next step? Speaking about events in the future! Just like in English, the future tense in Spanish describes actions and events that will take place at some time in the future.
In Spanish, there are a few irregular verbs that you need to know. In this guide, we’ll review how to use the basic future tense, look at the conjugation rules and put it all together to form the irregular future tense in Spanish.
The future tense in Spanish is used to talk about events in the future. All regular and irregular verbs conjugated in the future use the same endings.
Regular verbs in the future tense add endings to the infinitive form of the verb. What differs with the irregular future tense words in Spanish is that they change that infinitive form of the verb into an irregular root word.
Let’s look first at the verb hablar, to talk.
| Subject | Conjugated verb |
| yo (I) | hablaré |
| tú (you) | hablarás |
| él/ella (he/she) | hablará |
| usted (you; formal) | hablará |
| nosotros (us) | hablaremos |
| ellos/ellas (they) | hablarán |
| ustedes (you all; plural) | hablarán |
Note: There are two different forms of the future tense in Spanish. One is the simple future, which you see above. The other is the periphrastic future, which is ir + infinitive. To learn more about that shortcut form, check out this easy trick to the future tense.
Learning how to conjugate irregular verbs is a lot of work! You need to memorize both rules and different spellings at the same time. On the bright side, though, irregular future tense words in Spanish all use the same endings as regular future tense verbs.
Let’s jump into the three categories of irregular verbs in the future tense.
This category is for –er and –ir verbs only. These verbs drop the –e or –i from the infinitive, add a –d, add back the original –r and add the future endings.
For tener (to have), the progression goes like this: tener > ten + –d + –r > tendr + future ending.
| Subject | Conjugated verb: tener (to have) |
| yo (I) | tendré |
| tú (you) | tendrás |
| él/ella (he/she) | tendrá |
| usted (you; formal) | tendrá |
| nosotros (us) | tendremos |
| ellos/ellas (they) | tendrán |
| ustedes (you all; plural) | tendrán |
Other irregular verbs follow this same rule:
This category is for certain –er verbs only. These verbs drop the –e from the infinitive, keep the –r and add the future endings.
For poder (to be able to), the progression goes like this: poder > pod + –r > podr + future ending.
| Subject | Conjugated verb: poder (to be able to) |
| yo (I) | podré |
| tú (you) | podrás |
| él/ella (he/she) | podrá |
| usted (you; formal) | podrá |
| nosotros (us) | podremos |
| ellos/ellas (they) | podrán |
| ustedes (you all; plural) | podrán |
Other verbs that follow this rule:
There are some verbs that do not follow a set rule. They are completely irregular. But they still use the same regular endings! These are important verbs that you will use often.
| Subject | Conjugated verb: decir (to say) | Conjugated verb: hacer (to do) | Conjugated verb: satisfacer (to satisfy) |
| yo (I) | diré | haré | satisfaré |
| tú (you) | dirás | harás | satisfarás |
| él/ella (he/she) | dirá | hará | satisfará |
| usted (you; formal) | dirá | hará | satisfará |
| nosotros (us) | diremos | haremos | satisfaremos |
| ellos/ellas (they) | dirán | harán | satisfarán |
| ustedes (you all; plural) | dirán | harán | satisfarán |
Let’s look at a few example sentences using these irregular verbs.
| English | Spanish |
| Tomorrow we will leave early. | Mañana saldremos temprano. |
| He will come soon. | Vendrá pronto. |
| They won’t fit in the car. | No cabrán en el coche. |
| I will know the answer tomorrow. | Sabré la respuesta mañana. |
| Will you tell me the story later? | ¿Me contarás la historia más tarde? |
| They will make the food for the party. | Harán la comida para la fiesta. |
Now you know how to conjugate irregular future tense verbs in Spanish in a few different formats. It will take time to learn the rules and memorize the irregular verbs. The best way to do that is to practice! Enroll in a Spanish class or simply talk to your Spanish-speaking friends. Applying your learnings to real-world situations will not only give you a sense of how to use them best, but it will also impress your buddies. Go for it!
