Future Perfect Tense in Spanish Grammar
What is the futuro compuesto in Spanish grammar?
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.
Contents
Example
Camila espera una carta muy importante de la universidad, pero todavía no ha llegado.
¿Qué habrá pasado?
¿Habrán olvidado enviar su carta?
¿Se habrá perdido por el camino?
Aunque está muy impaciente, seguro que antes del lunes que viene la carta habrá llegado.
When to use the future perfect tense in Spanish grammar
The Spanish future perfect tense expresses:
- assumptions or speculations about what may have happened in the past
- Examples:
- ¿Habrán olvidado enviar su carta? Did they forget to send their letter?
- ¿Se habrá perdido por el camino? Maybe it got lost along the way?
- future actions that will have already occurred before another moment in the future (indicated by a time marker)
- Example:
- Aunque está muy impaciente, seguro que antes del lunes que viene la carta habrá llegado. Although she’s very impatient, I’m sure that the letter will have arrived by next Monday.
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:
- perderse → ¿Se habrá perdido por el camino? Maybe it got lost on the way?
- la carta = 3rd person singular → reflexive pronoun se
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
