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The Near Future Tense

Uses:

In Spanish, a future action can generally be expressed in 4 different ways. 

  1. The Simple Future (the English equivalent of I will, you will, he will, etc.)

  2. The Present Tense (to express actions in the very immediate future)

  3. The Near Future (the English equivalent of I am going to, you are going to, etc.)

  4. The Present Subjunctive (to express something in the immediate future that follows a Subjunctive trigger)

This page is going to focus on number 3 - the equivalent of the I am going to...

Formation:

The Near Future is formed by using the Present Tense of the verb, ir + the preposition a and the infinitive of the action verb.

ir + a + infinitive verb

The verb ir indicates who is going to do the action.

The infinitive verb indicates what action is going to be done.

Below is the Present Tense conjugation of ir:

The Near Future is often accompanied by a time reference, such as:

  • el mes/año que viene

  • esta tarde/noche 

  • hoy

  • la semana que viene

  • mañana

  • más tarde

  • pasado mañana

For example:

  • “Mañana voy a jugar al fútbol.” Tomorrow I'm going to play football

  • “El año que viene, vas a ir a Valencia.” Next year you're going to go to Valencia

  • “Mañana por la noche vamos a bailar.” Tomorrow evening we're going to dance

Click here to continue to exercises on the Near Future Tense

Published: 18/04/2016

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