Spanish future and conditional, explained
For plans, everyday Spanish uses ir a + infinitive: voy a llamar. The simple future (llamaré) adds the endings to the whole infinitive, and Spanish also uses it to guess about the present: serán las diez.
The conditional (llamaría) shares the future's twelve irregular stems. It's for polite requests, advice and imagined situations, and it pairs with the imperfect subjunctive in si clauses.
The essentials
- Ir a + infinitive for plans: vamos a cenar fuera.
- Future: infinitive + -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án (hablaré). Irregular stems: tendr-, saldr-, podr-, har-, dir-, querr-…
- Conditional: the same stems + -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían (hablaría).
- Guessing: ¿dónde estará? (where can he be?), estaría cansado (he was probably tired).
- Si clauses: si tengo tiempo, iré (likely); si tuviera tiempo, iría (imagined); si hubiera tenido tiempo, habría ido (past).
Every lesson on this topic
Each lesson has a full explanation, examples you can listen to, and exercises with answers.
A1 (the A1 course)
- Ir and ir a + infinitive (plans): Voy, vas, va… and voy a + infinitive for what you're going to do.
B1 (the B1 course)
- The simple future (hablaré) and irregular stems: Say what will happen: one set of endings on the whole infinitive, and twelve short stems to learn.
- The future for guesses: Serán las diez: Use the future tense to guess or wonder about the present: estará en casa, ¿qué hora será?
- The conditional: politeness, advice, hypotheses: Would: polite requests, advice with deberías and yo que tú, imagined situations and the future seen from the past.
B2 (the B2 course)
- Hypotheses: si tuviera, iría: Real conditions with si + present; imaginary ones with si + imperfect subjunctive and the conditional.
- Future and conditional perfect, including guesses about the past: Say what will have happened (habré terminado), what would have happened (habría ido), and guess about the past.
In the app, these lessons are taught one idea at a time with audio, practised with questions that explain the rule when you slip, and brought back for review on later days.
Other topics
- Ser vs estar, explained
- Por vs para, explained
- Preterite vs imperfect, explained
- The Spanish subjunctive, explained
- Gustar and verbs like it, explained
- Spanish reflexive verbs, explained
- Spanish object pronouns, explained
- Spanish commands (the imperative), explained
- The Spanish present tense and stem-changing verbs
- Spanish perfect tenses: he hablado, había hablado and more
- Tú vs usted (and vosotros vs ustedes), explained
- Spanish articles, gender and agreement, explained
- Spanish pronunciation and accent marks, explained