Future - Irregular Verbs

We have seen that normal regular verbs use the infinitive form (the form that ends in "R" and means "to do something") in the formation of the "will" forms. Some verbs are irregular and use what we call the "future stem" instead of the normal infinitive. The future stem is derived from the infinitive, with some small changes, and ends in "R" just like the infinitive.

Usually, what happens is that the "a" or "e" vowel which comes before the "r" is dropped. We have seen this in the case of "poder" and "haber". Look at the example below:

poder (infinitive) - podr (future stem)

When we add the "future endings" (actually the present forms of "haber" minus the "h") to these, we have the future forms which would be translated as "will do something" in English.

To review, let's take a look at the chart for the verb "PODER" in the future forms.

FUTURE-"PODER"

Now let's take our study of the irregular future forms of verbs in Spanish one step further.

With some verbs, there is another possible situation that we might run into. If, when the vowel in front of the "r" is dropped, we end up with a combination of consonants, either "-lr" or "-nr", we add the letter "d" in front of the "r". This is because of the "trilled" pronunciation of the "r", which makes it difficult to pronounce following "l" or "n".

The "d" is inserted between the "l" and "r" or the "n" and "r" because it makes it easier to pronounce the combination of consonants. Look at the future forms of the verb "tener" ("to have").

TENER

We have seen that the verb "has" can be used to express more than one idea. First we used "have" to express possession. Then we learned that we can use forms of "tener" plus the word "que" with an infinitive (the "R" form) to say that someone "has to do something". We can use the future forms of "tener" to express an obligation that someone will have to do in the future.

Let's practice sentence building using the future forms of "tener".

Another verb with an irregular "future stem" that adds the letter "d" once we drop the vowel before the "r" of the infinitive is the verb "salir" ("to leave"). One small point to remember when using this verb is that in Spanish, we have to say, "leave from" a place. We always use "de" when we indicate the place that we are leaving from.

Remember, we drop the "i" of the infinitive. This leaves us with a consonant cluster "lr" which is uncomfortable in Spanish. To make pronunciation easier, we add the letter "d". Here is a chart of the future forms of the verb "salir".

SALIR

• I will leave
  yo saldré

• you will leave
  tú saldrás

• he/she will leave
  él/ella saldrá

• we will leave
  nosotros saldremos

• they will leave
  ellos/ellas saldrán

Another irregular future stem is found in the case of the verb "poner" ("to put"). Again, we drop the vowel "e", leaving us with the combination "nr", which speakers of Spanish find uncomfortable to pronounce. We add the "d" to make the pronunciation easier. Here is a chart of the verb "poner" for the future forms.

PONER

• I will put
  yo pondré

• you will put
  tú pondrás

• he/she will put
  él/ella pondrá

• we will put
  nosotros pondremos

• they will put
  ellos/ellas pondrán

The verb "poner" can be used in a variety of ways in Spanish to express different ideas. Let's practice using "poner" in the future forms to just mean "to put" something somewhere. We'll add in some practice with direct object pronouns that we have studied previously.

Another way we use the verb "poner" is with a "reflexive" pronoun. Remember that these are situations where someone does something to himself. Let's look at the chart of reflexive pronouns.

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

myself           -me

yourself         -te

himself/herself  -se

ourselves        -nos

themselves       -se 

We can use the verb "poner" with a reflexive pronoun to express the idea of "putting on" clothing. Let's see how this would work with some sentence building practice. One thing that you will notice is that in Spanish, since we are saying that someone is putting the clothing on himself, we don't use possessive words like we do in English. Instead of saying, "I'm putting on my coat" we say "I'm putting the coat onto myself".

Another meaning which we can express with "poner" used with a reflexive pronoun and an adjective to describe a condition that someone "becomes". You might think of it as "putting" yourself in a particular "state" or "condition". As with all sentences in which we are dealing with adjectives, we have to make the adjective match the noun that it describes. We'll use the adjective "sick" which in Spanish is "enfermo". I have a picture in my mind of an amusement park and someone is warning about the consequences of riding on a wild roller coaster.

Another adjective which we can use to describe a "condition" that we get into is "happy". In Spanish we would say "contento". I can imagine a situation where someone would be very happy if they won the lottery ("ganar la lotería"). In some cases like "happy" we just say "be" rather than "become" since we mean "begin to be".

Now let's take a look at two other verbs that have unusual "future stems". These are the verbs "hacer" ("to make/do") and "decir" ("to say/tell"). These two verbs are unique in the language in that they have been reduced to a single syllable in each case. Here is the chart for these two verbs.

FUTURE STEM

hacer har

decir dir 

Let's use the future forms of "hacer" to build sentences.

Here is the chart for the "will" forms of "hacer".

HACER

• I will do
  yo hare

• you will do
  tú harás

• he/she will do
  él/ella hará

• we will do
  nosotros haremos

• they will do
  ellos/ellas harán

DECIR

• I will tell/say
  yo diré

• you will tell/say
  tú dirás

• he/she will tell/say
  él/ella dirá

• we will tell/say
  nosotros diremos

• they will tell/say
  ellos/ellas dirán