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Objective

Clarify which one to use 'Futuro' or 'Subjuntivo' (or it does not matter) to say "I do not believe/think it will rain tomorrow".

  • No creo que lloverá mañana.
  • No creo que llueva mañana.

In my understanding, 'Futuro' to talk about the future possibility and 'subjunctive' to talk about the belief/understanding/opinion in negation. When a sentence has both, which one to use and are there implications that the talker intends?

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The first example (future) is definitely not correct. It will be correct if you truly know it won't rain: "No lloverá mañana". The second example is OK.

'Futuro' and 'Subjuntivo' are types of different facets of the verbal construction: 'Futuro' indicates tense and 'Subjuntivo' indicates mode. The future you are using is from the 'Indicativo' mode which deals with real word and certain events and thus it is not adequate for the "possibility" scenario you are trying to express.

Here you can see a clarification of modes and tenses. http://www.esfacil.eu/es/verbos/3-modos-y-tiempos-verbales-en-espanol.html

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  • Hi DielMartin, Thanks indeed, really. I did not know about 'modality'. Will look into. Thanks again. If you could look at spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/11947/…, it would be much appreciated.
    – mon
    Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 11:34
  • As a side note there's actually a "Futuro de Subjuntivo" but its use is very obscure and limited AFAIK only to (old-fashioned)legalese. I've always found that tense to be funny.
    – DieMartin
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 11:19
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Your second example is the more common and correct way of saying it, although most of us would use "llueve".

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    This answer is correct. For opinions we use the indicative (Creo que lloverá). For doubts use the subjunctive (No creo que llueva). "Creo/No creo" are the same word but gramatically generate sentences of different types.
    – Rodrigo
    Commented Feb 1, 2015 at 23:47
  • Thanks Frank and Rodrigo. Gave me more sense that 'no' generates a different implication to indicate 'doubt', so subjunctive is more appropriate.
    – mon
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 11:37

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