French 3.5. Future Tense

One informal but common way to express the future tense in the indicative mood is by using the verb “aller” (to go) in the present simple tense followed by the infinitive.

For example, “Je vais voyager,” literally means “I go travel,” but it is similar in purpose to the English expression “I am going to travel.”

Simple Future Tense

The formal simple future tense is also used to express events in the future and is more common in written literature. To form the stem of the verb needed for regular verb conjugation, we use the infinitive as a stem and drop the final “-e” in the case of “-re” verbs. The endings are the same for the three types of verbs.

Usage of the Simple Future Tense in French vs. English

Uses of the simple future tense in French are very similar to that in English. Nevertheless, there are sometimes little differences.

For example, in sentences that describe two events occurring in the future linked with “quand” (when) or “dès que” (once), both events are expressed in French using verbs in the simple future tense.

While in English we say “I’ll call you when I arrive home,” in French, we would say “Je t’appellerai quand j’arriverai à la maison.” Notice that both verbs “appeler” (to call) and “arriver” (to arrive) are in the future tense.

Irregular Verbs

There are some verbs that are irregular in the simple future tense. Here, we list the most common ones:

There are some verbs that undergo minor spelling changes. Here are some common examples:

Examples

Here are some examples that use the simple future tense:

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