Present versus future

[Fluenz User Support]

We received an interesting question from a Fluenz user recently:

I'm curious why the verb in the example below is 'es' when it refers to something in the future.

Our trip to Argentina will be next week
Nuestro viaje a Argentina es la semana que viene

[Fluenz User Support]

Great question! The use of "es" in this sentence, even though it's referring to the future, is because "es" expresses a scheduled or planned event, which is common in Spanish when talking about events in the near future.

In Spanish, the verb "ser" (in its present form "es") is often used to talk about events that are considered certain or scheduled, especially when talking about things like plans or appointments. It’s similar to how we might say "Our trip is next week" in English to describe something scheduled for the future.

So, even though the trip is in the future, it is being treated as a scheduled event, and "es" is used to express this.

Here’s a comparison:

Nuestro viaje a Argentina es la semana que viene ("Our trip to Argentina is next week" – planned/scheduled event)
Nuestro viaje será la semana que viene ("Our trip will be next week" – future event, but more general)
Both are correct, but using "es" makes it feel more like a confirmed plan.

[irahandler]

Here's another example from Level 5:

Let’s go surfing on Saturday because (it)’s going to be hot and there will surely be a lot of waves.

Vamos a hacer surf el sábado porque va a hacer calor y por seguro hay muchas olas.

Why is the present tense "hay" used instead of a future tense? BTW, Google Translate translates that sentence as:

Vamos a surfear el sábado porque hará calor y seguro habrá muchas olas.

[irahandler]

Subtle but mostly clear!