Like English future tense verbs, the French future tense is used to describe upcoming events or situations. The French simple future tense tends to be one of the easiest tenses for native English speakers to understand. First, there is only one set of endings for all verbs. Second, all of the conjugations found in this set are equivalent to simply saying just will + main verb in English. Finally, most of them use their infinitives as the root. This includes the vast majority of verbs which possesses irregular present tense forms.

 

The French Future Conjugations

For regular ­­–ER and ­–IR verbs, simply add the appropriate endings to the infinitive. Do not drop the infinitive ending. For regular ­–RE verbs, drop the final –e from the infinitive before adding the correct ending for whom or what you are referring to. Irregular future tense verbs have a stem change in the future tense but still use the same endings. There are only two dozen or so of these irregular stem-changing future tense verbs in common usage, making the required stem-changes relatively easy to memorize.

 

Pronoun	Future Ending	ER – Parler (to speak)	IR – Choisir   (to choose)	RE – Descendre(to descend)	Irregular – Aller (to go)
je	-ai	parlerai	choisirai	descendrai	irai
tu	-as	parleras	choisiras	descendras	iras
il, elle, on	-a	parlera	choisira	descendra	ira
nous	-ons	parlerons	choisirons	descendrons	irons
vous	-ez	parlerez	choisirez	descendrez	irez
ils, ells	-ont	parleront	choisiront	descendront	iront

 

 

Notes on Usage

There are some situations where the future tense is used in French that the present or past tense would be used in English. For example, the future tense is often used in journalism, despite the events being reported on usually having taken place in the past. The future tense can also be used in polite orders and requests as an alternative to the vous form of the imperative. Finally, the simple future tense should not be used to express an event that will occur in the immediate future. Use the futur proche (near future) verb construction of aller + infinitive of action verb in such situations instead.