Language/French/Grammar/The-future

The Future Tense in French

The future tense in French is used to talk about actions that will happen in the future. In this lesson, we will go over how to form the future tense in French and provide examples.

Regular Verbs

To form the future tense of regular verbs in French, you need to add the endings -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont to the infinitive form of the verb. Here's a table with the verb parler (to speak) in the future tense:

Subject Pronoun	Verb Form	Example
je	parlerai	Je parlerai à mon professeur demain. (I will speak to my teacher tomorrow.)
tu	parleras	Tu parleras français couramment. (You will speak French fluently.)
il/elle/on	parlera	Il parlera avec ses amis après le travail. (He will speak with his friends after work.)
nous	parlerons	Nous parlerons de notre voyage en Italie. (We will talk about our trip to Italy.)
vous	parlerez	Vous parlerez à votre chef demain matin. (You will speak to your boss tomorrow morning.)
ils/elles	parleront	Ils parleront de leur projet ce soir. (They will talk about their project tonight.)

Irregular Verbs

Some verbs have irregular future tense forms, which do not follow the regular pattern. Here are a few examples:

• être (to be): je serai, tu seras, il/elle/on sera, nous serons, vous serez, ils/elles seront
• avoir (to have): j'aurai, tu auras, il/elle/on aura, nous aurons, vous aurez, ils/elles auront
• faire (to do/make): je ferai, tu feras, il/elle/on fera, nous ferons, vous ferez, ils/elles feront
• aller (to go): j'irai, tu iras, il/elle/on ira, nous irons, vous irez, ils/elles iront

Usage

The future tense is used to talk about actions that will happen in the future, and can also be used to make predictions or talk about future plans. Here are some examples:

• Je partirai en vacances l'été prochain. (I will go on vacation next summer.)
• Il fera beau demain. (It will be nice weather tomorrow.)
• Nous irons au cinéma ce soir. (We will go to the movies tonight.)
• Tu auras réussi ton examen. (You will have passed your exam.)
• Elles seront à l'aéroport à midi. (They will be at the airport at noon.)

In summary, the future tense in French is formed by adding the appropriate endings to the infinitive form of the verb. Regular verbs follow a predictable pattern, while irregular verbs have unique forms. The future tense is used to talk about actions that will happen in the future, make predictions, or discuss future plans.

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• The partitive article
• Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c— or g—
• Regular plurals in French
• « d'autres » VS « des autres »
• Mass nouns used countably
• Order of unstressed object pronouns when more than one is present
• Easy way of generating the Future and Conditional
• Quantifiers and personal pronouns
• Indirectly transitive verbs