Iré, Comeré, Viviré - The Futuro Simple

You learned ir + a + infinitivo in Module 7 and you've been using it as your future ever since: voy a ir al médico, voy a comer en casa. That construction stays — Spaniards use it constantly for plans. This lesson adds a second future, the futuro simple, which Spaniards use for predictions, promises, and the slightly more formal "I will." By the end, you'll have one more future at your disposal, and a clear sense of when each one fits.

The Endings — One Set, Three Conjugations

The futuro simple is the friendliest tense in Spanish to conjugate. There is one set of endings, and you glue them onto the infinitive — not the stem. Every regular -ar, -er, and -ir verb takes the same six endings:

Pronoun	hablar (to speak)	comer (to eat)	vivir (to live)
yo	hablaré	comeré	viviré
tú	hablarás	comerás	vivirás
él / ella / usted	hablará	comerá	vivirá
nosotros / nosotras	hablaremos	comeremos	viviremos
vosotros / vosotras	hablaréis	comeréis	viviréis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	hablarán	comerán	vivirán

Three things to lock in:

Endings always go on the full infinitive. Hablar + é → hablaré. Vivir + ás → vivirás. The infinitive itself doesn't change.
All forms except nosotros carry an accent: hablaré, hablarás, hablará, hablaremos, hablaréis, hablarán. Drop the accent and Spanish stresses the wrong syllable.
There are no stem changes. Verbs that change in the present (pensar → pienso, dormir → duermo) go back to the regular infinitive in the futuro: pensaré, dormiré.

A few real examples:

Mañana hablaré con mi jefe. – Tomorrow I'll speak with my boss.
Marta comerá con nosotros el domingo. – Marta will eat with us on Sunday.
¿Dónde viviréis cuando os mudéis? – Where will you live when you move?
Llegaremos sobre las ocho. – We'll arrive around eight.
Mis padres llamarán esta tarde. – My parents will call this afternoon.

The Ten Irregular Stems

Ten verbs use a slightly different stem for the futuro. The endings stay exactly the same — only the stem changes. Memorise them once:

Infinitive	Futuro stem	Yo form	English
tener	tendr-	tendré	I will have
hacer	har-	haré	I will do / make
poder	podr-	podré	I will be able
poner	pondr-	pondré	I will put
salir	saldr-	saldré	I will go out
venir	vendr-	vendré	I will come
decir	dir-	diré	I will say
querer	querr-	querré	I will want
saber	sabr-	sabré	I will know
haber	habr-	habré	I will have (aux.)

The endings still go on these stems exactly like a regular verb:

Pronoun	tener	hacer	poder
yo	tendré	haré	podré
tú	tendrás	harás	podrás
él / ella / usted	tendrá	hará	podrá
nosotros / nosotras	tendremos	haremos	podremos
vosotros / vosotras	tendréis	haréis	podréis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tendrán	harán	podrán

Some real examples:

Mañana tendré que ir al banco. – Tomorrow I'll have to go to the bank.
¿Qué harás el viernes por la noche? – What will you do on Friday night?
No podré ir a la fiesta, lo siento. – I won't be able to go to the party, I'm sorry.
Os lo diré cuando llegue. – I'll tell you all when he/she arrives.
¿Vendrás conmigo al concierto? – Will you come with me to the concert?

A small drill that pays off: chant the irregulars in groups of three. Tendré, haré, podré. Pondré, saldré, vendré. Diré, querré, sabré, habré. Two minutes a day for a week and the stems become reflex.

When Spaniards Actually Use It

Spain has two futures — ir + a + infinitivo and the futuro simple — and they're not interchangeable. The rough split:

Use	Reach for
A plan, an intention	ir + a + infinitivo
A prediction about the world	futuro simple
A promise or commitment	futuro simple
Speculation about the present	futuro simple
Casual "I'll do that"	ir + a + infinitivo
News headlines, formal speech	futuro simple

Two pairs that show the difference:

Voy a comer con Pablo el sábado. – I'm going to eat with Pablo on Saturday. (a plan)
Mañana lloverá en el norte. – Tomorrow it will rain in the north. (a prediction)
Voy a llamar a mi madre ahora. – I'm going to call my mum now. (an immediate plan)
Te llamaré, te lo prometo. – I'll call you, I promise. (a promise)

A useful trick: the futuro simple is also the tense for speculation about the present — guessing what's going on right now:

¿Dónde estará Carlos? – Where could Carlos be?
Será su madre la que llama. – It must be his mother calling.
Tendrá unos cuarenta años. – He must be about forty.

Spanish grammar books call this futuro de probabilidad ("probability future"). It's how Spaniards guess at things they don't quite know.

Practice

Words to Remember

Spanish	English
iré	I will go
irás	you will go
iremos	we will go
comeré	I will eat
viviré	I will live
hablaré	I will speak
llegaremos	we will arrive
llamaré	I will call
tendré	I will have
haré	I will do
podré	I will be able
pondré	I will put
saldré	I will go out
vendré	I will come
diré	I will say
querré	I will want
sabré	I will know
mañana	tomorrow
la semana que viene	next week
el año que viene	next year

Conversation

Planning the weekend

Pablo: ¿Qué harás este finde? What will you do this weekend?

Marta: Iré a la sierra con mi hermana. I'll go to the mountains with my sister.

Pablo: ¡Qué guay! ¿Y si llueve? How cool! And if it rains?

Marta: Si llueve, nos quedaremos en casa. If it rains, we'll stay at home.

Guessing where someone is

Lucía: ¿Dónde estará Carlos? Lleva una hora sin contestar. Where could Carlos be? He hasn't replied for an hour.

Diego: Estará en el trabajo. He must be at work.

Lucía: Será eso. That'll be it.

Making a promise

Sofía: ¿Vendrás conmigo al concierto? Will you come with me to the concert?

Javi: Sí, te lo prometo. Saldremos a las ocho. Yes, I promise. We'll leave at eight.

Sofía: Vale, te esperaré en casa. OK, I'll wait for you at home.

Cultural Note

In everyday Spain, ir + a + infinitivo does most of the heavy lifting for plans, and the futuro simple keeps a slightly more elevated register. Voy a ir al médico mañana is what you say to a friend. Iré al médico mañana sounds a touch more formal — fine, but more written than spoken in casual contexts. The futuro simple shines in three specific places: predictions (mañana lloverá), promises (te llamaré, te lo prometo), and the news headline register (el gobierno aprobará la ley).

The probability future is the most quietly useful trick in this lesson. When a Spaniard wants to guess at the present without committing, they use the futuro: será su madre, tendrá unos cuarenta años, estará en el trabajo. It's not "she will be" — it's "she must be," "she's probably," "I'd guess." Once you start hearing it, you'll catch it everywhere on Spanish radio and TV. Add the construction será que... for "I guess..." and you've got a thinking-out-loud register that sounds very Spanish.

A note on accents: every futuro simple form except nosotros carries an accent on the final vowel. Hablaré, hablarás, hablará, hablaremos, hablaréis, hablarán. The accents aren't decoration — they tell the reader where to put the stress. Drop the accent and the verb collapses back into a present-tense look (hable in subjunctive instead of hablaré in futuro).