Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): De aquí a un año entero, habremos aprendido tantas palabras que leer novelas será más fácil. - A year from now, we will have learned so many words that reading novels will be easier.

De aquí a un año (entero)
- Very common and natural.
- Explicitly takes “here/now” as the starting point and projects forward.
- Often slightly more vivid or conversational: “from now until a year from now”.
Dentro de un año
- Also very common; probably the most neutral option.
- Means “in a year / a year from now”.
- Does not explicitly mention the starting point, but it’s understood to be now.
En un año
- Can mean “in a year” but is more ambiguous: depending on context, it can be understood as:
  - duration: “in one year (it only takes a year)”, or
  - time in the future: “in a year’s time”.
- Often you prefer dentro de or de aquí a to avoid ambiguity in time expressions.

In your sentence, De aquí a un año entero nicely highlights the time span from now up to that future point.

Why is entero used in un año entero? Can I leave it out or move it somewhere else?

Entero here simply adds emphasis, like “a whole year” or “an entire year” in English.

Un año entero = “a whole year”
Without entero: De aquí a un año, habremos aprendido…
This is still completely correct and natural; you just lose a bit of that “all that time” emphasis.

About position:

Correct / natural:
- un año entero
- todo un año (slightly different nuance but similar meaning)
Incorrect / unnatural:
- un entero año
- entero un año

So: entero is optional here, and it must go after the noun (año) in this structure.

Why use de aquí a for time? Could I say desde aquí hasta un año entero instead?

For time expressions in Spanish, de aquí a + periodo is the standard pattern to mean “from now to/in X time”:

De aquí a dos semanas
De aquí a tres meses
De aquí a un año entero

Using desde aquí hasta un año entero sounds strange because:

desde … hasta … is much more common for space (desde aquí hasta Madrid) or for time when you have two clear time points:
- desde hoy hasta mañana,
- desde 2020 hasta 2024.
In de aquí a un año, the second point (“a year from now”) isn’t an already-known date; it’s being defined by the expression itself.

So for “from now until a year from now”, the normal options are:

De aquí a un año (entero)…
Dentro de un año…

Not desde aquí hasta un año entero.

Why is the verb habremos aprendido (future perfect) used instead of aprenderemos (simple future)? What’s the difference?

Habremos aprendido is the future perfect (futuro compuesto), used here to talk about an action that will be completed before a specific moment in the future.

De aquí a un año entero, habremos aprendido tantas palabras…
→ “A year from now, we will have learned so many words…”

This focuses on the result/state at that future time: by then, the learning is already completed (at least up to that point).

If you said:

De aquí a un año entero, aprenderemos tantas palabras…
it sounds more like: “A year from now, we’ll learn so many words…”
which can be misunderstood as the learning happening at that future point, not necessarily accumulated up to that point.

Both can be grammatically valid, but:

Habremos aprendido = by that future time, the learning will already be done (up to that moment).
Aprenderemos = we will learn (sometime in the future), not as clearly tied to being completed by that specific deadline.

In your sentence, habremos aprendido matches very well with the idea of accumulated knowledge by that time.

Could I say Hemos aprendido or Vamos a aprender instead of habremos aprendido?

You could, but you would change the meaning:

De aquí a un año entero, hemos aprendido tantas palabras…
This mixes a future time reference (De aquí a un año entero) with a present perfect (hemos aprendido, “we have learned”).
- It sounds wrong because hemos aprendido refers to something up to now, not to a future point.
- So this combination is not acceptable in standard Spanish.
De aquí a un año entero, vamos a aprender tantas palabras…
- Grammatically possible, but unusual in this structure.
- It sounds like a plan or prediction: “In the next year, we are going to learn so many words…”, focusing more on the process than on the completed result by that point.

To keep the idea “by that time we will already have reached this level”, habremos aprendido is the most natural choice.

In habremos aprendido tantas palabras que leer novelas será más fácil, what is the function of tantas … que?

The structure tantos/tantas + noun + que + result expresses a result caused by a large quantity, similar to:

“so many … that …” in English.

In your sentence:

tantas palabras = so many words
que leer novelas será más fácil = that reading novels will be easier

So it means:

“We will have learned so many words that reading novels will be easier.”

Important points:

tantos/tantas agrees in gender and number with the noun:
- tantas palabras, tantos libros, tanta gente, tanto interés…
que here introduces a result clause, not a purpose:
- It’s not “in order that” but “with the result that”.

Why is it leer novelas será más fácil and not serán más fáciles?

The subject of the verb será is leer novelas (the activity), not novelas individually.

Leer novelas (to read novels / reading novels) functions as a single, abstract activity, grammatically treated as singular, masculine (as infinitives normally are in Spanish when used as nouns).
Therefore, the verb and the adjective agree with that singular subject:
- leer novelas será más fácil
  - será: 3rd person singular, future
  - más fácil: masculine singular form (it’s invariable for gender here, but important that it’s singular in agreement sense)

If you said:

Leer novelas serán más fáciles,
this would be incorrect because the subject is not plural novelas, but the whole action leer novelas as one unit.

Could I also say Será más fácil leer novelas? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can absolutely say:

De aquí a un año entero, habremos aprendido tantas palabras que será más fácil leer novelas.

Both orders are correct:

leer novelas será más fácil
será más fácil leer novelas

Differences are slight and mostly about emphasis:

Leer novelas será más fácil
→ Puts initial focus on “reading novels”.
Será más fácil leer novelas
→ Starts with the idea “it will be easier”, then specifies what will be easier.

Grammatically, they are equivalent and both natural in Spain.

Why is the infinitive leer used instead of something like leyendo or la lectura de novelas?

In Spanish, the infinitive is the normal form used when the verb acts like a noun (a verbal noun):

Leer novelas es divertido. – “Reading novels is fun.”
Fumar es malo para la salud. – “Smoking is bad for your health.”

So here:

leer novelas será más fácil
→ “reading novels will be easier”

Using leyendo (leyendo novelas será más fácil) is wrong in this context: the gerund in Spanish is not used as a subject like “reading” in English; it mainly expresses ongoing actions (Estoy leyendo, sigo leyendo).

You could use a noun phrase like la lectura de novelas, but:

la lectura de novelas será más fácil is grammatically fine but sounds more formal or abstract.
leer novelas será más fácil is the most natural everyday way to say this.

Is De aquí a un año entero only used with “now”, or can it refer to other reference points?

With de aquí a + periodo, aquí normally refers to “now” (the present moment in time).

For other reference points, you typically change aquí to something else:

De entonces a ahora han pasado diez años.
“From then to now ten years have passed.”
De hoy a mañana
“From today to tomorrow.”
De ahí a unos años, todo habrá cambiado.
“From that point to a few years later, everything will have changed.”

So:

De aquí a un año entero… → by default, “a year from now.”
To shift the reference point, you don’t keep aquí; you use words like entonces, ahí, a specific date, etc.

Would a Spaniard be more likely to say Dentro de un año instead of De aquí a un año entero? Is the sentence natural in Spain?

The sentence:

De aquí a un año entero, habremos aprendido tantas palabras que leer novelas será más fácil.

is natural and perfectly understandable in Spain.

That said, in everyday conversation many speakers might prefer:

Dentro de un año, habremos aprendido tantas palabras que…

The differences:

Dentro de un año
- Slightly more common, very neutral.
- Standard in both Spain and Latin America.
De aquí a un año (entero)
- Also common and natural.
- Feels a bit more vivid / conversational, emphasizing “from now to that point”.

So your original sentence is fine; just be aware that Dentro de un año is an equally natural alternative you will hear a lot.

Is the comma after De aquí a un año entero necessary, or could I write the sentence without it?

In Spanish, when you start a sentence with a time expression like De aquí a un año entero, it is very common to put a comma after it:

De aquí a un año entero, habremos aprendido…

This comma:

Marks a natural pause in speech.
Helps clarify the structure of the sentence.

However, it’s not strictly obligatory by a hard rule; in simple cases, some writers might omit it:

De aquí a un año entero habremos aprendido tantas palabras…

Both are acceptable, but with the comma is more standard and clearer, especially in writing.