Lesson 3 - Grammar 2 - French Future Tense - Le futur
Examples/ Exemples: |
---|
Je n'y manquerai pas. |
Si je prends un taxi, j'arriverai à temps. |
Vous paierez la prochaine fois. |
Nous verrons plus tard. |
Et vous me l'apporterez à signer immédiatement. |
Vous verrez qu'elle est tout à fait moderne. |
J'ai une personne qui fera votre affaire. |
Où mettrez-vous vos enfants? |
Besides the future-time verb phrase ‘aller + infinitive’ discussed in level 1, lesson 11, grammar 1, French has a future tense (le futur).
The relationship in meaning between the future verb phrase and the future tense is highly similar to the relationship between the English patterns 'I’m going to …' and 'I shall …'
The future tense is part of the future system and may be conceived as having two parts:
Future Tense = Future Stem + Future
Ending
The endings of all future forms are:
Personal
pronoun |
Future ending |
---|---|
je | -ai |
tu |
-as |
il, elle, on | -a |
nous | -ons |
vous | -ez |
ils, elles | -ont |
All future stems end in ‘r’. They can be divided in two main groups a. and b., plus a few irregular stems (c. ).
a. The whole infinitive serves as the stem for the future tense for verbs whose infinitives end in -ir or -er:
Verbs with infinitive in 'ir' ou 'er' | ||
---|---|---|
parler | to talk, to speak | je parlerai |
sortir | to go out | nous sortirons |
dormir | to sleep | vous dormirez |
b. The final -e is dropped from the infinitive:
Verbs like 'prendre' | ||
---|---|---|
prendre | to take | je prendrai |
lire | to read | elle lira |
c. Exceptions
Infinitive form | Future stem | |
---|---|---|
aller | to go | ir- |
savoir | to know | saur- |
avoir | to have | aur- |
mourir | to die | mourr- |
courir | to run | courr- |
pouvoir | to be able | pourr- |
être | to be | ser- |
voir | to see | verr- |
envoyer | to send | enverr- |
faire | to do | fer- |
venir | to come | viendr- |
vouloir | to want | voudr- |
devoir | to have to | devr- |
recevoir | to receive | recevr- |