21.3 no future tense after cuando


  when thinking about future tenses a sentence like the following could come to mind

incorrect: Cuando vendrás, te lo regalaré. = When you will come, I will give it to you.


That is simply wrong. If the main clause indicates, that the action is not yet realised then after cuando always, the subjuntivo has to be used. In this example the main clause (te lo regalaré) indicates that the action was not yet realised therefore it has to be subjuntivo.

  the right version is

Cuando vengas, te lo regalaré. = When you come, I will give it to you.


When talking about the interrogative pronoun cuándo this does not apply. If you might remember the radio waves of long gone years...

Dime cuándo tu vendrás, cuándo, cuándo, cuándo = Tell me when you will come, when, when, when


(For those ones who had not the pleasure of ever hearing this hit, don't mind it is no loss, but it is rather valuable for grammar lessons)

To be kept in mind is that the impersonal phrases can be used in any tense also in the future tense.

  Example

Habrá que decírselo.
= He will have to be told.
Habrá que gastar mucho dinero para restablecer la infrastructura.
= It will have to be spent a lot of money to reconstruct the infrastructure.







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