French Tenses.

Le Futur Simple

The French future tense talks about upcoming events. While the French future tense has a full set of conjugations, the English equivalent is just the modal verb "will" + main verb.

 

   J'irai au magasin demain.

   I will go to the store tomorrow.

 

   Ils mangeront dans l'avion.

   They will eat on the plane.

 

The French future tense can also be used in si clauses, to express what will happen if a condition is met: (SPF = Si + Present + Future)

 

   Si j'ai le temps, je le ferai.

   If I have time, I will do it.

 

   Je le ferai si j'ai le temps.

   I will do it if I have time.

 

Conjugation

The future has only one set of endings for all verbs, and most of them - even many which are irregular in the present tense - use their infinitive as the root.

• The future stem always ends in R.

• The exact same verbs are irregular in the conditional and use the same stems.

 

French future conjugations

To conjugate an -ER or -IR verb in the future tense, add the appropriate endings to the infinitive. For -RE verbs, remove the final -e and then add the future endings. For irregular verbs, add the endings to the irregular future stem. For example, here are the future conjugations for the regular verbs parler (to speak), finir (to finish), and vendre (to sell) and the irregular verb aller (to go):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Futur Proche

A verb construction used to express something that is going to happen soon, an upcoming event which is going to occur in the near future.

 

Conjugation:

The conjugated part of the verb aller + infinitive

e.g.

  Je vais travailler.

  I am going to work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Futur Antérieur

The futur antérieur (future perfect) is used to express a future action or event that will be completed before another future action or to describe a future action or event that will have been completed in the future.

 

Use future tense of avoir or être and the past participle of the main verb

The futur antérieur tells what the subject will or shall have done:

 

Ils auront fini avant mon départ.

They will have finished before my departure

 

Nous serons déjà partis quand vous arriverez.

We will have already left when you arrive.

 

Les enfants se seront déjà couchés quand leurs parents reviendront.

The children will have already gone to bed when their parents return.