In this lesson we will talk about the future tense in French, the two ways of expressing it, followed by examples.
In French, there are two forms of the future: the near future “le futur proche” and the simple future “le futur simple” each one has its own use, which we will discuss:
The Near Future Tense In French
We use the near future “futur proche” to talk about actions that are certain to happen in the near future, like: the moment after now, tonight, tomorrow, next week.
To form the futur proche, we use the verb aller in its present tense form followed by the verb in action in the infinitive form, e.g: je vais manger (I am going to eat)
Here is the conjugation of the verb “aller” in the present:
| Je | vais |
| Tu | vas |
| il / elle / on | va |
| nous | allons |
| vous | allez |
| ils / elles | vont |
To form the negative sentence with the futur proche we use this structure: subject + ne + aller in the present + pas + the main verb in action in the infinitive form
E.g: Je ne vais pas manger (I’m not going to eat)
Note: you can practice what you’ve learned here, and learn how to pronounce each of the words in our Memrise course here, don’t know how to use the platform or sign up? we’ve got you covered in this easy-to-follow tutorial here.
The Simple Future
We use the simple future “le futur simple” to talk about things that will happen in the future like projects, predictions and actions for example.
To use verbs ending in -er and -ir in the futur simple we just need to add the following endings to the verb (in the infinitive):
| Je | -ai |
| Tu | -as |
| il / elle / on | -a |
| nous | -ons |
| vous | -ez |
| ils / elles | -ont |
Example: Parler (to speak)
| Je | parlerai |
| Tu | parleras |
| il / elle / on | parlera |
| nous | parlerons |
| vous | parlerez |
| ils / elles | parleront |
Example: Manger (to eat)
| Je | mangerai |
| Tu | mangeras |
| il / elle / on | mangera |
| nous | mangerons |
| vous | mangerez |
| ils / elles | mangeront |
Example: Finir (to finish)
| Je | finirai |
| Tu | finiras |
| il / elle / on | finira |
| nous | finirons |
| vous | finirez |
| ils / elles | finiront |
We conjugate the verbs that end with -re in the same way, the only difference is that you need to remove the “e” in -re before adding the futur simple endings:
Example: Répondre (to answer)
| Je | répondrai |
| Tu | répondras |
| il / elle / on | répondra |
| nous | répondrons |
| vous | répondrez |
| ils / elles | répondront |
Continue learning French with us here.
Happy learning!