In Spanish, there are two future tenses: simple future and phrasal future. And lucky for us, both of these are also tenses that we use in English. I'm going to be a bit of a rebel and explain both phrasal and simple future in consecutive chapters, even though my outline tells me I'm supposed to wait till after all the perfect tenses to teach simple future. But you guys are smart, so I'm sure you can handle it. Let's roll.
The English version of the phrasal future tense is "I am going to....[verb]." This is a little different than traditional future, which is the "I will....[verb]" tense. This is because "I am going to" means you haven't done the verb yet, but you will in a very short amount of time. "I will" implies an unspecified amount of time. If this hurts your head, that's okay. The closest translation of the phrasal tense is "I am going to [verb]", but it can also be translated the other way. However, simple future is strictly the "I will [verb]" translation.
Now that I've rattled that off, I'm going to introduce to you something that's going to blow your mind (hey, I used phrasal future there!). This is a formula. In Spanish, there are going to be formulas in nearly all the tenses we're covering from here on out, and this is the first one:
ir + a + infinitive
This is a pretty big formula that probably means nothing to you, so let's break it down bit by bit:
1.) Ir. This verb means "to go". It's also one of the most frustrating verbs in Spanish because it's irregular in every tense it follows, and in every conjugation. However, this verb is really common, so it's not very hard to learn. Below are the conjugations for it:
Yo: Voy
Tú: Vas
Él, ella, ud.: Va
Nosotros: Vamos
Vosotros: Vais
Uds., ellos/ellas: Van
2.) "A". This is the preposition meaning "to". It's a bit redundant if translated literally, but as I've said before, it's a lot clearer if you look at it in terms of the objects and ideas that the words convey and not so much whether it's a word-for-word translation.
3.) Infinitive. We know what this is unless you didn't read the last chapter, in which case you should go and do that instead.
So let's put all this together with some more tasty examples!
¡Te voy a alcanzar! ｜I am going to catch up to you!
Vamos a comer. ｜We are going to eat.
Van a tratar. ｜They are going to try.
Ella lo va a destuir. ｜She is going to destroy it.
Vas a caminar. ｜You are going to walk.