Hey everyone - This evening I tried to teach the future perfect tense (will + have + past participle) to a native Spanish speaker, though she had some trouble understanding the meaning of it and when to use it.
She tries to associate anything new in English with Spanish to help her understand. So my question is, is there an equivalent of the future perfect tense in Spanish?
How would one say "I will have learned English by the time I return to Mexico" in Spanish?
Thanks for your help...
The Future Perfect Tense and Spanish
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Stephen Jones
- Posts: 1421
- Joined: Sun May 18, 2003 5:25 pm
Spanish does have a future perfect tense - it's English that doesn't.
There is a reasonably close correlation between the use of 'will' in English and the different future tenses in Spanish.
There is a reasonably close correlation between the use of 'will' in English and the different future tenses in Spanish.
Bad habit; she's really storing up problems for herself in other areas. If you knew Spanish fluently, you could warn her of the dangers, but that doesn't appear to be the case.She tries to associate anything new in English with Spanish to help her understand.
Stephen is right of course. Translating usually causes more problems than it solves, but in this case I can't see any immediate danger.
"I will have learned English. . ."
"Habre aprendido ingles. . ."
The English modal "will" almost always corresponds to the Spanish future tense: both are a little too formal to be used often in conversation.
"I will have learned English. . ."
"Habre aprendido ingles. . ."
The English modal "will" almost always corresponds to the Spanish future tense: both are a little too formal to be used often in conversation.
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GhostClown
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:53 am
Thanks for your reply...
Can you elaborate on this? Maybe it's because I just woke up, but I don't quite understand when you say English doesn't have a future perfect - I certainly see it in my grammar books...Stephen Jones wrote:Spanish does have a future perfect tense - it's English that doesn't.
Yeah, I know it's not the greatest thing to do, but given her level (intermediate), I don't force her not to do it...To be honest, I used to do the same when studying languages. And you're right; unfortunately I never studied Spanish...StephenJones wrote:Bad habit; she's really storing up problems for herself in other areas. If you knew Spanish fluently, you could warn her of the dangers, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
GhostClown - if you're thinking of the will have done construction, then you have to realise that will is a modal, not a tense. English, like other Germanic languages, has ways of talking about the future, but it does not have a future tense.
I don't know which grammar book you are referring to, any half decent one makes the point that there is no future tense in English.
It's actually debatable as to whether or not future time is a primary semantic characteristic of will, but we've had that debate before on Dave's and I don't plan to reignite it - if you're interested, find the old Interesting guse of Future Perfect Tense thread a few pages back and have a look.
I don't know which grammar book you are referring to, any half decent one makes the point that there is no future tense in English.
It's actually debatable as to whether or not future time is a primary semantic characteristic of will, but we've had that debate before on Dave's and I don't plan to reignite it - if you're interested, find the old Interesting guse of Future Perfect Tense thread a few pages back and have a look.
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GhostClown
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:53 am
lolwhites - Yeah, sorry...I guess I should have been more specific. I know that will is a modal verb and not technically a tense and my grammar book(s) do indeed state that the term "future tense" is sometimes viewed as a misnomer since in English future verb stems are not infelcted to express future time, as they are in other languages.
To draw an example from French though, I think it's kind of like the subjunctive. While not technically a tense, it's still best to learn it like it is a tense.
Anyway, we're getting off topic...Really what I'm interested in is how Spanish expresses that a future action will be completed prior to a specific future time or event.
To draw an example from French though, I think it's kind of like the subjunctive. While not technically a tense, it's still best to learn it like it is a tense.
Anyway, we're getting off topic...Really what I'm interested in is how Spanish expresses that a future action will be completed prior to a specific future time or event.