Future Perfect Tense in Spanish Grammar

Just here for the exercises? Click here.

What is the futuro compuesto?

The futuro compuesto/futuro perfecto de indicativo, or future perfect indicative is used in Spanish to express a forthcoming action that will have concluded before another future action. It can also express the assumption that an action would have occurred in the past.

Learn how and when to use the future perfect in Spanish grammar and master the conjugation of regular and irregular verbs with Lingolia’s grammar rules and exercises. In tense comparison, you will find an overview of all the tenses in Spanish grammar.

Example

—¿Por qué está desmontando su bici Jorge?

—Se habrá caído de la bicicleta o habrá tenido una avería.

—¡Oh, no! En una hora queríamos dar una vuelta en bici.

—¡No te preocupes! Para entonces ya la habrá reparado.

When to use the Spanish future perfect?

Use the future perfect indicative in Spanish to express:

  • an action that will have been completed by a certain point in the future. We always use a time marker in this context.
Example:
Jorge salió muy temprano con la bicicleta. Para la hora de comer, habrá vuelto a casa.Jorge went out early on his bike. He will have come back by lunch time.
  • an assumption about an action that happened in the past.
Examples:
Se habrá caído de la bicicleta.He will have fallen off his bike.
Habrá tenido una avería.He will have had an accident.
  • an assumption about the future.
Example:
La semana que viene va de excursión con unos amigos. Para entonces habrá reparado la avería.Next week he’s going on a trip with some friends. By then he will have repaired the damage.

Verb Conjugation in Spanish Future Perfect

To conjugate verbs in future perfect (futuro perfecto), we use the future forms of the verb haber, as well as the participle.

Person haber Participle
yo habré

hablado

aprendido

vivido
tú habrás
él/ella/usted habrá
nosotros/-as habremos
vosotros/-as habréis
ellos/ellas/ustedes habrán

Reflexive Verbs

When the verb is reflexive, the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, se) always comes before the auxiliary verb haber.

Example:
(Yo) me habré olvidado las llaves en casa.I must have forgotten my keys at home

How to form the Spanish participle

We form the Spanish participle by adding -ado or -ido to the root of the verb.

  • add -ado to the root of -ar verbs
    Example:
    hablar → habladospeak → spoken
  • add -ido to the root of -er and -ir verbs
    Example:
    aprender → aprendidolearn → learned
    vivir → vividolive → lived

Note

When the root of the verb ends in a vowel, the -i of the ending -ido takes an accent: -ído.

Examples:
leer → leídoread → read
oír → oídohear → heard
traer → traídobring → brought

Note: Participles that contain a dipthong (weak vowel + weak vowel) such as construido or huido do not take an accent.

Check out our Spanish-language page on accents to learn more about dipthongs.

Irregular participles

Certain verbs have an irregular participle form as shown in the table below:

Verb Irregular Participle Regular Participle
abrir abierto
cubrir cubierto
decir dicho
escribir escrito
hacer hecho
freír* frito freído
imprimir* impreso imprimido
morir muerto
poner puesto
proveer* provisto proveído
romper roto
satisfacer satisfecho
suscribir** suscrito/suscripto
ver visto
volver vuelto

*Some verbs have two participle forms, one regular and one irregular. There is no difference in meaning and they can be used interchangeably.

**The participle suscripto is used in certain countries in Latin America.

Derivative irregular verbs

Many verbs are derivative; they are derived from irregular verbs by adding a prefix. Their participles are also irregular:

Examples:
encubrir → encubiertohide → hidden
descubrir → descubiertodiscover → discovered
componer → compuestocompose → composed
posponer → pospuestopostpone → postponed
proponer → propuestopropose → proposed
revolver → revueltostir → stirred
resolver → resueltoresolve → resolved
devolver → devueltoreturn → returned
deshacer → deshechoundo → undone
predecir → predichopredict → predicted
prever → previstoforecast → forecasted

Note: although derived from the irregular verb romper, the participle of the verb corromper is regular.

Example:
corromper → corrompidocorrupt → corrupted
not: corroto