The French future tense, or le futur, is easily the most straight forward French tense. For regular verbs, it's formed by simply adding the single future ending to the infinitive form of the verb.
Le Futur | Future Tense
1. General Use
Le futur can be expressed in three ways:
- By using the standard future tense
Je ne travaillerai pas demain soir I'm not going to work tomorrow night Nous choisirons une date plus tard We'll choose a date later Ils vendront leur maison bientôt They'll sell their house soon - By using the present to imply the immediate future
Je te parle plus tard I'll chat to you later J'arrive! I'll be there! - By using aller and the infinitive form of a verb (futur proche)
Je vais regarder la télé ce soir I'm going to watch TV tonight Ils vont aussi aller en Belgique cette année They're also going to go to Belguim this year
2. Formation
| pronoun | + infinitive + | future ending | |
| Je | -ai | ||
| tu | -as | ||
| il / elle / on | -a | ||
| nous | -ons | ||
| vous | -ez | ||
| ils / elles | -ont |
Note: With le futur, the infinitive form of the verb always ends in R. So, when forming the future tense of regular -RE verbs, drop the final E of the infinitive before adding the 'future ending.'
3. Irregular Future Verbs
The following table of verbs have irregular future stems that take the place of otherwise 'regular' infinitive stems - you'll note they mirror
the conditional tense's set, too.
The 'future endings' remain unchanged, so just add the correct ending to the required stem.
| verb | english | future stem | |
| aller | to go | ir- | |
| avoir | to have | aur- | |
| courir | to run | courr- | |
| devoir | to have to, to owe | devr- | |
| envoyer | to send | enverr- | |
| être | to be | ser- | |
| faire | to do | fer- | |
| falloir | to be necessary | faudr- | |
| mourir | to die | mourr | |
| pleuvoir | to rain | pleuvr- | |
| pouvoir | to be able to | pourr- | |
| recevoir | to receive | recevr- | |
| savoir | to know | saur- | |
| venir | to come | viendr- | |
| voir | to see | verr- | |
| vouloir | to want | voudr- |
* If you know of a nice mnemonic for the above feel free to share!
4. Concept Check
This table provides you with a few running examples of le futur:
| pronom | choisir | faire | manger | prendre |
| pronoun | to choose | to make/do | to eat | to take |
| Je | choisirai | ferai | mangerai | prendrai |
| tu | choisiras | feras | mangeras | prendras |
| il / elle / on | choisira | fera | mangera | prendra |
| nous | choisirons | ferons | mangerons | prendrons |
| vous | choisirez | ferez | mangerez | prendrez |
| ils / elles | choisiront | feront | mangeront | prendront |
