Future Subjunctive

Future Subjunctive

For native English speakers, the many different tense of Spanish can seem overwhelming.  From time to time, obscure tenses can appear in legal writing, literature or in online conjugation tables.  The future subjunctive, el futuro de subjuntivo,  was used in the past but has largely been usurped by the present subjunctive, presente subjuntivo, except in some legal writing.  The website spanishdict.com lists the future subjunctive in its conjugation tables:

The stem of the future subjunctive begins with the 3rd person plural of the preterite by dropping the -ron ending.

ellos caminaron                      camina-

ustedes tuvieron                    tuvie-

Maria y Raquel tradujeron      traduje-

The ending is the same for all verbs regardless of ending (ar, er or ir):

yo                   -re

tu                    -res

ella                  -re

nosotros         -remos

vosotros         -reis

ellas                -ren

For the word crecer, the full conjugation is as follows beginning with the stem crecie-.

yo                   creciere

tu                    crecieres

ella                  creciere

nosotros         creciéremos

vosotros         creciereis

ellas                crecieren

Note how the accent was added in the nosotros form.

These endings are quite similar to the much more common imperfect subjunctive, subjuntivo imperfecto.  The imperfect subjunctive is exactly the same as the future subjunctive except the letter e is replaced by the letter a.

Here is an example of the future subjunctive in Guatemalan Penal law:

Comete delito de usurpación quien, con fines de apoderamiento o aprovechamiento ilícitos, despojare o ..

Commit a crime of usurpation of unlawful seizure or illicit use, will be stripped or…

One expression you may run into in Spanish is

Venga lo que viniere.

Come what may.