Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Mañana cocinaré una paella y te la llevaré al trabajo. - Tomorrow I will cook a paella and bring it to you at work.

In Spanish, the simple future is formed by adding the same set of endings (-é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án) directly to the infinitive of -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. For example:
• cocinar → cocinaré (I will cook)
• llevar → llevaré (I will take/bring)
This tense expresses an action that will happen in the future without needing an auxiliary verb like will in English.

Why does mañana have a tilde on the ñ?

The mark on the ñ in mañana isn’t an accent but a tilde, which makes ñ a separate letter (pronounced /ɲ/, like the “ny” in “canyon”). Without it, manana would be a different sequence of letters, so the tilde is essential for correct spelling and pronunciation.

Why do cocinaré and llevaré have accents on the final é?

By default, Spanish words ending in a vowel are stressed on the second-to-last syllable. To shift the stress to the last syllable (as required in the simple future for yo), you add an acute accent on that vowel. Hence cocinaré and llevaré both carry an accent on the final é.

What do the pronouns te and la stand for, and why are they ordered te la?

• te is the indirect object pronoun meaning “to you.”
• la is the direct object pronoun meaning “it” (referring to la paella, which is feminine).
When using two object pronouns together, the indirect object pronoun (te) always comes before the direct object pronoun (la), giving te la.

Why are the pronouns placed before the verb llevaré, instead of attached to its end?

In Spanish, with fully conjugated verbs (like llevaré), object pronouns must go before the verb (this is called proclisis). Attaching pronouns to the end of a verb (enclisis) is only allowed with infinitives (e.g., llevarte), gerunds (e.g., llevándote), and affirmative commands (e.g., llévatela).

Could you ever attach object pronouns to a simple future form like llevaré?

No. You cannot attach pronouns directly to a simple future form. If you switch to a periphrastic future—voy a llevar—then you can attach pronouns to the infinitive: voy a llevarte la paella.

What is the difference between llevar and traer?

Both can mean “to bring/take,” but:
• llevar emphasizes moving something away from the speaker toward another place.
• traer emphasizes moving something toward the speaker’s current location.
Since you’re taking the paella to someone else’s workplace, you use llevaré.

Why do we say una paella and not just paella in this sentence?

In Spanish, singular, countable nouns generally need an article. Una is the indefinite article for feminine singular nouns. Una paella means “one paella” or “a paella.” Omitting una would make the statement more general (e.g., Cocino paella can sound like “I cook paella” in general, not “I’ll cook a specific paella”).