Estaré haciendo: the Spanish future progressive
The future progressive is estar in the simple future plus a gerund: estaré trabajando, estarán durmiendo. It says something will be in progress at a future moment. It also guesses about the present: estará durmiendo means "he is probably asleep", which is how Peruvians use it most.
Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.
Two jobs, and the second is the frequent one
Job one — in progress at a future moment.
Mañana a esta hora estaré volando a Cusco. El domingo estaremos visitando el museo.
Job two — a guess about right now.
No contesta. Estará durmiendo. — He’s not answering. He must be asleep. ¿Dónde está Ana? Estará llegando. — Where’s Ana? She’s probably on her way.
Job two is not the future at all. It is the same trick the simple future plays in serán las tres (“it must be about three”): Spanish borrows a future form to mark a guess. In everyday Peruvian speech you will meet this use far more often than the first one.
Building it
Estar in the simple future, then the gerund.
| estar | + gerund | |
|---|---|---|
| yo | estaré | trabajando |
| tú | estarás | comiendo |
| él / ella / usted | estará | saliendo |
| nosotros | estaremos | jugando |
| ustedes / ellos | estarán | durmiendo |
Estar is regular in the future — the endings go straight onto the infinitive. The irregular gerunds are the usual suspects: durmiendo, pidiendo, diciendo, viniendo, leyendo, oyendo, yendo.
Object and reflexive pronouns go before estar or attached to the gerund: te estaré esperando or estaré esperándote. When you attach one, the gerund takes a written accent — esperándote, diciéndoselo — because the stress has to stay where it was.
For a real plan, Peruvians say voy a estar
If the future moment is genuine and arranged, ir a is more common than -ré in Peru, and that holds for the progressive too:
- El viernes voy a estar trabajando hasta tarde.
- A las ocho vamos a estar cenando, mejor ven después.
Estaré trabajando is not wrong — it is a register up, and it reads as slightly more formal or more deliberate. In a written schedule or an announcement it is perfectly natural; in a message to a friend, voy a estar is what you will get back.
Where it earns its place
The one context where the plain voy a will not do is when you need the “will be in the middle of” meaning explicitly, usually against a stated time:
- Llámame a las diez. A esa hora ya estaré saliendo de la oficina.
- No me busques el sábado, estaré manejando todo el día.
The contrast with saldré matters: a las diez saldré is one event at ten o’clock; a las diez estaré saliendo is being mid-departure when ten arrives.
The guess, in practice
This is worth drilling because it sounds odd until it doesn’t:
| Spanish | What it means |
|---|---|
| Estará almorzando. | He’s probably having lunch. |
| Estarán esperándonos. | They’re probably waiting for us. |
| ¿Qué estará pensando? | What can she be thinking? |
| Nos estará mirando. | She must be watching us. |
All present-tense guesses. None of them are about the future.
Try it
- Tomorrow at nine I’ll be travelling.
- She doesn’t pick up — she’s probably in class.
- Don’t call me at eight, I’ll be eating.
→ 1 Mañana a las nueve estaré viajando (or voy a estar viajando). · 2 No contesta, estará en clase — with estar alone, no gerund needed. · 3 No me llames a las ocho, voy a estar comiendo.
Next
→ The simple future, and what Peruvians use it for → Ir a + infinitive, the future people actually use → He estado + gerundio
Topics The presentPeruvian Spanish
Estaré haciendo — future or guess?
Half of these are about the future. The other half are about the present, which is what this tense mostly does in Peru.
-
1Mañana a esta hora ___ a Cusco.
Answer
estaré volando — *Estar* in the simple future plus a gerund says you will be mid-flight at that hour. *Estaría volando* is the conditional and belongs in a hypothetical.
-
2No contesta el teléfono. ___.
Answer
Estará durmiendo — This is the guessing use: *estará durmiendo* means “he must be asleep” right now, not at some future point. It is the commonest use of the tense in Peru.
-
3Telling a friend by message that you'll be working late on Friday, you'd most likely write:
Answer
El viernes voy a estar trabajando hasta tarde. — For a real, arranged plan Peruvians reach for *voy a estar* plus a gerund. *Estaré trabajando* is correct but a register up, and the second option uses a participle rather than a gerund.
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4With the pronoun attached, “I'll be waiting for you” is:
Answer
Estaré esperándote. — Attaching a pronoun adds a syllable, so the gerund takes a written accent: *esperándote*. *Te estaré esperando* is the other correct version.
-
5Llámame a las diez. A esa hora ya ___ de la oficina.
Answer
estaré saliendo — *Saldré a las diez* is one event at ten o'clock. *Estaré saliendo* says you will be in the middle of leaving when ten arrives, which is the whole point of the tense.
-
6Your friend is staring into space and you wonder aloud what is going through her head:
Answer
¿Qué estará pensando? — The future form marks a guess about right now. *Habrá pensado* would guess about something already finished, and the other two are plain past.
-
7Ellos estarán ___ la cuenta en este momento.
Answer
pidiendo — *Pedir* changes its stem in the gerund, giving *pidiendo*. Same group as *durmiendo*, *diciendo* and *viniendo*.