how do you form the near future in Spanish?

Conjugate ir in the present - voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van - then add a and then the infinitive of the main verb, unchanged. Voy a hablar, vas a comer, vamos a salir.

is the near future or the simple future better in a GCSE Spanish exam?

Either is accepted, and the near future is easier to get right because only ir has to be conjugated. Using both across an answer is better still, because mark schemes at higher tier reward a range of tenses used accurately.

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the Spanish near future

The near future is ir plus a plus an infinitive, and it says what you are going to do. Only ir changes, so it is the cheapest way to add a future tense to an answer.

voy a hablar

I am going to speak

when to use it

Use it for plans and intentions, which at GCSE means most of what you will ever write about the future - next year, after school, this weekend. It is accepted anywhere the simple future would work, and it sounds more natural in speech.

Words that tend to sit with it: mañana, este fin de semana, luego, más tarde, la semana que viene

voy a estudiar esta noche ~ I am going to study tonight
vamos a ver una película ~ we are going to watch a film

how to build it

Two parts: ir (present) + a, which changes for the person, and the infinitive (never changes), which does not.

	ir (present) + a
yo	voy a
tú	vas a
él/ella	va a
nosotros	vamos a
vosotros	vais a
ellos/ellas	van a

group	the infinitive (never changes)
-ar	hablar
-er	comer
-ir	vivir

one verb from each group

The three regular patterns side by side, so the only thing changing between columns is the group the verb belongs to.

	hablar	comer	vivir
yo	voy a hablar	voy a comer	voy a vivir
tú	vas a hablar	vas a comer	vas a vivir
él/ella	va a hablar	va a comer	va a vivir
nosotros	vamos a hablar	vamos a comer	vamos a vivir
vosotros	vais a hablar	vais a comer	vais a vivir
ellos/ellas	van a hablar	van a comer	van a vivir

what goes wrong

Leaving out the a. It is voy a estudiar, never voy estudiar, and the missing word is a lost mark in a translation.

There are no rule-breakers at all. Ir is the only part that changes, and it changes the same way whatever verb follows it. The one thing to remember is that a reflexive verb tacks its pronoun onto the infinitive: voy a levantarme.

common questions

how do you form the near future in Spanish?: Conjugate ir in the present - voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van - then add a and then the infinitive of the main verb, unchanged. Voy a hablar, vas a comer, vamos a salir.
is the near future or the simple future better in a GCSE Spanish exam?: Either is accepted, and the near future is easier to get right because only ir has to be conjugated. Using both across an answer is better still, because mark schemes at higher tier reward a range of tenses used accurately.

knowing the table is not the same as producing the form

langrevise drills the Spanish near future across 414 verbs, one form at a time, and brings each one back after a gap that gets longer every time you get it right.

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