Simple Future: Irregular Stems | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

A small group of common verbs have irregular stems in the simple future. The good news: the endings are exactly the same as for regular verbs (-é, -ás, -á, -emos, -án). You only need to learn the new stem; everything else is automatic.

The Twelve Irregular Verbs

There are twelve verbs you truly need to memorize. They fall into three neat patterns.

Pattern 1 — Drop the Vowel of the Ending

These verbs drop the final vowel of the infinitive (the -e- or -i-). The stem ends in a consonant + r.

Infinitive	Future Stem	Example (yo)
poder	podr-	podré
saber	sabr-	sabré
caber	cabr-	cabré
haber	habr-	habré
querer	querr-	querré

No podré asistir a la reunión mañana.

I will not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow.

Sabremos los resultados el viernes.

We will know the results on Friday.

Pattern 2 — Replace the Vowel with a D

These verbs replace the vowel of the infinitive ending with a -d-, creating a -dr- stem.

Infinitive	Future Stem	Example (yo)
tener	tendr-	tendré
venir	vendr-	vendré
poner	pondr-	pondré
salir	saldr-	saldré
valer	valdr-	valdré

Tendremos una fiesta el próximo sábado.

We will have a party next Saturday.

Vendrán los abuelos para Navidad.

The grandparents will come for Christmas.

¿A qué hora saldrás del trabajo?

What time will you leave work?

Pattern 3 — Heavily Shortened Stems

Two verbs have unique, heavily shortened stems. You just have to memorize them.

Infinitive	Future Stem	Example (yo)
decir	dir-	diré
hacer	har-	haré

Te diré la verdad cuando estemos solos.

I will tell you the truth when we are alone.

¿Qué harán ustedes este fin de semana?

What will you all do this weekend?

💡

Compounds follow their base verb. If tener becomes tendr-, then detener becomes detendr-, mantener becomes mantendr-, and so on. The same applies to hacer → deshacer → deshar-, venir → convenir → convendr-.

Full Conjugation of Tener

Subject	Future Form
yo	tendré
tú	tendrás
él / ella / usted	tendrá
nosotros / nosotras	tendremos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tendrán

Full Conjugation of Hacer

Subject	Future Form
yo	haré
tú	harás
él / ella / usted	hará
nosotros / nosotras	haremos
ellos / ellas / ustedes	harán

The Endings Are Always the Same

This is worth repeating because it simplifies everything: irregular future verbs use the same endings as regular ones. Once you know podr-, every form follows automatically: podré, podrás, podrá, podremos, podrán.

Querré un café después de almorzar.

I will want a coffee after lunch.

Habrá mucha gente en el concierto.

There will be a lot of people at the concert.

💡

The future form habrá (from haber) is the future version of hay. Use it to say "there will be": Habrá una reunión mañana. It is invariable — it does not change for singular or plural.

Next, learn how to use the simple future for predictions, plans, and promises.

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