Future & conditional

Both tenses bolt their endings onto the whole infinitive — you don't even remove the -ar/-er/-ir. One set of endings each, for all three verb families.

Future — infinitive + é

A dozen verbs shorten the stem — same endings:

tener → tendré · poner → pondré · salir → saldré · venir → vendré poder → podré · saber → sabré · querer → querré · haber → habré hacer → haré · decir → diré

But speech prefers ir a + infinitive

Like English "going to", and more common than the future tense in conversation:

Voy a llamarte mañana. · Vamos a ver. · ¿Qué vas a hacer?

The plain present also covers near-future plans: Mañana trabajo.

Future for guessing — the surprise use

The future tense expresses probability about right now:

Conditional — infinitive + ía

Same stems (including the irregular ones), endings identical to -er/-ir imperfecto:

Uses: politeness (¿Podrías ayudarme? · Me gustaría un café), "would" (Yo no haría eso), and probability in the past (Serían las tres cuando llegó — it was probably three).

Si-clauses — the two patterns

Never a future or conditional directly after si: not si tendré, si tendría — the si half stays in present or subjunctive.

Same chapter in: English · French · German · Italian · Georgian · Mandarin Chinese · Cantonese · Malay