Being able to say that you’ve “just done something” or that “something has just happened” is very useful for everyday spoken Spanish, for example you might want to say

I have just told him
She has just left
They have just finished
It has just arrived
We have just noticed

It also works for

I had just told him
She had just left
They had just finished
It had just arrived
We had just noticed

When you’re ‘in the moment’ and speaking in ordinary situations knowing how to express this for any verb is going to be a useful asset. It will make your Spanish flow more naturally.

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Important: This tense is meant to express that something literally just happened so it’s expressing some action in the past.

The good news is that you can easily learn to express practically any verb in this way. You just need one simple formula…

1. Acabo de (I have just)
2. Acabas de (You have just)
3. Acaba de (He/She/It has just)
4. Acabamos de (We have just)
5. Acaban de (They have just)

Those are the 5 handles. Now all you need to do it put a verb after any one of them. For example…

The verb “to leave” is “salir”. So to say “I just left” would simply be “Acabo de salir”. With that in mind, let’s run through the full set of handles

• I have just left – acabo de salir
• You have just left – acabas de salir
• He/She/It has just left – acaba de salir
• We have just left – acabamos de salir
• They have just left – acaban de salir

Run down the handles a few times then close your eyes and recall them again in your mind.

Let’s look at the other examples…

They have just finished – Acaban de finir

Here we have the verb “finir” for “to finish”.

So to say “They have just finished” you simply take the handle for ‘they have just’ and add the verb on the end of it “Acaban de finir”.

Here’s another – to say “It has just arrived” we need to know two things

1. Acaba de (it has just)
2. The verb to arrive is “llegar”

It has just arrived – Acaba de llegar

Test Yourself

Here are the verbs you should know before taking this test.

llamar – to call
Decidir – to decide
Finir – to finish
Pagar – to pay
llegar – to arrive
Salir – to leave
Preguntar – to ask

In this lesson I’m going to show you a very easy way to express “I was going to”.  For example…

I was going to go
He was going to explain
We were going to see it
They were going to notice

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Grammatically this is called the Imperfect Tense, but I much prefer to just think of it as ‘was going to’. It’s a very useful tense to have in your spoken Spanish but best of all I’m going to show you how you can apply it to any verb by learning just one simple formula.

In order to express any verb in this way you only need to learn one simple formula…

1. I was going to – iba a
2. You were going to – ibas a
3. He/She/It was going to – iba a
4. We were going to – íbamos a
5. They were going to – iban a

Even though you can see in the written language that there is a separate ‘a’ after each one, in speaking you’ll often hear it all  joined together so that it sounds like one word. This is how it works in the real world of everyday spoken Spanish.

Once you have learned the 5 handles (really just 4 because the 1st person (I )and the 3rd person (He/She/It) are exactly the same!) you’ll have all you need to express “something you were going to do” with any verb you like.

Here’s Exactly How This Works

Let’s say you wanted to express something like “I was going to go”.

Well we already know that “I was going to” is simply “iba a” in Spanish. Now all you have to do is add on the full verb after it.

I was going to go = iba a ir

Breaking it down we already know that “iba a” means “I was going to” & “Ir” is the verb for “to go” so putting them together you get “iba a ir”.

Another example would be…

He was going to explain = iba a explicar

Here we have an example of how Spanish uses the exact same handle (iba a) for “I was going to” but also “he/she/it” was going to. This may appear a little confusing at first since it raises the obvious question of “Well how does anyone know which person is being referred to in the spoken language, I, he, she or it?”. The answer is that it’s often obvious from the  context of the conversation being conducted. If you were having a conversation about your sister and you said “iba a explicar” then it would be clear to everyone that you meant “she was going to explain” since that’s who you were talking about anyway. In instances where it might not be clear there’s a simple way to make it clear in Spanish which I’ll show you in another lesson.

Let’s continue with two more examples…

We were going to see it = íbamos a verlo
They were going to notice = iban a notar

Taking all four examples given so far can you see how they all basically conform to the same simple formula?

1. You take the handle (iba a, ibas a, iba a, íbamos a, iban a)
2. You add on any verb

It’s also very easy to hook pronouns onto the end of the verbs. For example, if you wanted to say “I was going to tell you” it would be

Iba a decirte

Here we simply took the verb “decir” which means to say or tell and hooked “te” meaning “you” onto the end of the verb (decir + te)

If you’re not yet sure about pronouns (you, me, he, she, it, they and so on) then you can learn all about them here Spanish pronouns.

Test Yourself!

Spend a few moments to learn and memorize the “was going to” formula then take the test below.

This test assumes you already know these five common verbs

• Hacer – to do/to make
• Decir – to say or tell
• Preguntar – to ask
• Mostrar – to show
• Caminar – to walk
• Explicar – to explain
• Ver – to see

Taking a little time to learn the Spanish alphabet is something well worthwhile. There will be times when you’ll find yourself in situations where you’ll need to spell things out such as an unfamiliar street address for example so it’s an essential little Spanish speaking skill to have, trust me on this!

Unlike some other languages, Russian for example, you don’t need to learn an entirely new alphabet. In Spanish, the alphabet is practically identical to our own except that it contains 1 extra letter! Ñ

How To Learn The Spanish Alphabet

The fastest way to learn your Spanish abc’s is this…

1. First learn to pronounce the sounds of each letter in the alphabet just as you did as a child in school

2. Then perfect this by taking a page from a book and practice spelling each word out loud, letter by letter.

Do this a few times and you’ll have mastered it.

This video will teach it all to you in just few minutes…

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  Ñ  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Watch it on YouTube – Alphabet In Spanish

Spanish Alphabet Test

Once you feel you have memorized the sounds of all 27 letters take the following test.

The 10 words on this video contain all the letters of the Spanish alphabet. Pause each slide and spell the word out loud then press play to hear a native Spanish speaker spell it after you. If you’ve made a mistake then go back and review the sound of that particular letter. If you can spell all 10 words correctly then you’ll know you’ve mastered the Spanish alphabet.

In this lesson I’m going to show you the absolute easiest way to talk about the future in Spanish, in other words, how to express the future tense. As you’ll see on the video, there’s the hard way and a much easier way to do this.

Transcription

Hi, it’s Paul from lets-learn-spanish.com and in this short video I’m going to show you the absolute easiest way to express the future tense in Spanish.

So there’s actually two ways to talk about the future in Spanish. The first way is to conjugate each individual verb and this is actually the hardest way.

So as an example, if we take the verb “hablar” which means to speak then we tag on little endings onto the ending of the full verb in order to express the future tense.

Hablaré would be I will speak
Hablarás – you will speak
Hablará – he/she/it will speak
Hablarémos – we will speak
Hablarán – They will speak

Another example could be if we take the verb “comer” which means to eat, and we tag on the exact same endings onto the end of the verb in order to express the future.

Comeré – I will eat
Comerás – you will eat
Comerá – he/she/it will eat
Comerémos – we will eat
Comerán – they will eat

and so on.

So when you see it written out like that it actually looks very logical and easy but if you’re just learning Spanish and you’re trying to express yourself in the real world when the pressure is on then there’s actually quite a lot of grammatical thinking that you have to do.

First of all you have to conjugate each verb individually as I’ve just shown you and secondly you have to change the way you say or pronounce the word and put an accent on the final push of it.

So that actually gives you quite a lot of grammatical thinking to do and the more thinking you have to do grammatically the slower your Spanish is going to be, the less fluent you’re going to be able to speak.

Now in English we can express the future by using “going to”, for example

• I’m going to speak
• I’m going to go there
• I’m going to see her
• They are going to buy it

And luckily in Spanish we can do the exact same thing, all you have to do is learn the following.

These are 5 handles which will allow you to transform any verb in Spanish immediately into the future tense.

Voy a – I am going to
Vas a – you are going to
va a – he/she/it is going to
vamos a – we are going to
van a – they are going to

Now with those five handles all you have to do is put a verb in front of them, the full verb – the infinitive, and you’ll immediately be in the future tense.

So let’s go back to our first example here of “hablar” which means to speak.

So if I wanted to say “I’m going to speak” I would simply say “voy a” for “I’m going to” and then add the verb “hablar”.

“Voy a hablar” means “I’m going to speak”
“Vas a hablar” would be “You’re going to speak”
He, she or it is going to speak – Va a hablar
“We are going to speak” would be “Vamos a hablar”
“They are going to speak” – “Van a hablar”

Now the important thing to notice here is that I didn’t have to conjugate the verb. I left “hablar” as it was, I didn’t touch it, all I did was put one of the five handles in front of it and I was immediately able to express the verb in the future tense.

Here we have the second example which we looked at which was “comer”, to eat.

And you can see that you put the same five handles in front of it and you can leave the verb exactly as it is

I’m going to eat – voy a comer
You’re going to eat – vas a comer
He/she/it is going to eat – va a comer
We are going to eat – vamos a comer
They are going to eat – van a comer

Let’s take another verb, “limpiar” which is “to clean”

I’m going to clean – voy a limpiar
You’re going to clean – vas a limpiar
He/she/it is going to clean – va a limpiar
We are going to clean – vamos a limpiar
They are going to clean – van a limpiar

So let’s recap on exactly what we’ve just learned to do

This simple equation will allow you to instantly express any verb in the future tense in Spanish.

All you have to learn is

• voy a
• vas a
• va a
• vamos a
• van a

then whatever full verb you put in front of that, you don’t have to conjugate it at all, you’ll immediately get the future tense.

So my final advice is this

To make certain you really ‘get this’ and to make it second nature to the point where you won’t even have to think about it whenever you’re speaking Spanish the first thing to do is to memorize those handles, the conjugation of “IR” (to go). So that is what you’ve already learned (voy a, vas a, va a, vamos a and van a).

Then take a list of 50 or 100 verbs and randomly test yourself on how you would express them in the future tense using those handles.

Now I’ve actually gone ahead and done this for you already. You can simple visit the link below in the description box and take the test that I’ve prepared for you.

If you can pass the test you’ll prove to yourself that you’ve really understood what I’ve taught to you over the last few minutes and then you’ll be able to immediately implement it into your own spoken Spanish.

Test Yourself

All of this means nothing unless you take what you’ve learned and practice it to the point of perfection. It will only be of real use to you once you’ve made it second nature. That way when you’re speaking Spanish in front of real people and the pressure is on you’ll be able to fluently express yourself when it comes to talking about the future instead of “umming and ahhing” as your mind struggles with grammatical doubts and difficulties!

Don’t proceed to this test until you’ve thoroughly memorized how to conjugate IR.

1. Mirar = To Look

How would say “I’m going to look”

2. Pintar = To Paint

Say “We are going to paint”

3. Recordar = To Remember

Say “You are going to remember” (you informal/friend)

4. Contar = To Count

Say “They are going to count”

5. Cocinar = To Cook

Say “I’m going to cook”

6. Comprar = To Buy

Say “We’re going to buy”

7. Cenar = To Have Dinner

Say “You are going to have dinner?” (you informal/friend)

8. Aprender – To Learn

Say “We are going to learn”

9. Firmar = To Sign

Say “They’re going to sign”

10. Inmigrar = To Immigrate

Say “Are we going to immigrate?”

Answers

Click the link to open an MP3 file with the recorded answers. Opens in a new window.

http://www.lets-learn-spanish.com/wp-content/uploads/spanish-future-tense-answers.mp3

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