Future perfect and future progressive in Spanish
In the last lesson, we have covered the present future tense in Spanish, learned the conjugations and the uses of it. We also covered the ir + a + infinitive formulation to express future events. The subject of the present lesson is closesly related. It is the future perfect tense. Below, we cover the conjugation rules and examples of its uses.
Future perfect
The future perfect tense corresponds to ”I will have done” in English. It is compound tense. That means it is built by using the haber and the past participle, as the other perfect tenses. In this case, it is required to use the future form of haber which is irregular.
(yo) habré
(tú) habrás
(él/ella, usted) habrá
(nosotros/-as) habremos
(vosotros/-as) habréis
(ellos/-as, ustedes) habrán
For example, let us take the verb comer (to eat)
(yo) habré comido I will have eaten
(tú) habrás comido you will have eaten
(él/ella, usted) habrá comido he/she; you will have eaten
(nosotros/-as) habremos comido we will have eaten
(vosotros/-as) habréis comido you will have eaten
(ellos/-as, ustedes) habrán comido they will have eaten
Let us take another example: aprender (to learn)
(yo) habré aprendido I will have learned
(tú) habrás aprendido you will have learned
(él/ella, usted) habrá aprendido he/she; you will have learned
(nosotros/-as) habremos aprendido we will have learned
(vosotros/-as) habréis aprendido you will have learned
(ellos/-as, ustedes) habrán aprendido they will have learned
Let us take another verb: saber (to know)
(yo) habré sabido I will have known
(tú) habrás sabido you will have known
(él/ella, usted) habrá sabido he/she; you will have known
(nosotros/-as) habremos sabido we will have known
(vosotros/-as) habréis sabido you will have known
(ellos/-as, ustedes) habrán sabido they will have known
Examples
Habré hecho la tarea I will have done the homework
¿Habrás comido ya? Will you have already eaten?
Te habrás lavado las manos You will have washed your hands
Mañana habré terminado mi tarea I will have finished my homework tomorrow
Habré aprendido los verbos I will have learned the verbs
Le habré hablado I will have spoken to him
Note that the general principles about using the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle are valid here. For example you should not separate them. To make a negative sentence, add “no” before the conjugated “haber”. When forming questions with the future perfect, put the auxiliary verb at the beginning. Please click here to review the rules to build negative sentences and questions.
Recall also that the future tense in Spanish is used very often to express likelihood. This is valid also for the future perfect. In this case, the meaning will correspond to something like “must have”.
For example
Son las nueve. Ellos ya habrán llegado It’s nine o’clock, they must have arrived already
Ellos habrán llegado al aeropuerto They might have arrived at the airport
Future progressive
As in English, the future progressive is used to express the activities that will be happening in the future. Like the simple future tense explained above, the future progressive can be used to express probability as well.
The future progressive is built, similar to other progressive tenses, with the future of estar and the present participle. Estar is regular in future tense.
Esta noche estaré viajando a Mexico (Tonight I will be travelling to Mexico)
Vocabulary
(el) futuro future
mañana tomorrow
mañana por la mañana tomorrow morning
¡hasta mañana! see you tomorrow
pasado mañana the day after tomorrow
mañana temprano early tomorrow
el día de mañana in the future
la mañana siguiente the following morning
muy de mañana very early in the morning
próximo next
el mes próximo next month
el día siguiente the next day
en un año in a year
- when you want to say by some specific day, use para. For instance
para el quince de julio by the 15th of July