Portuguese 2.4. Future Tense

One informal but common way to express the future tense in the indicative mood is by using the auxiliary verb “ir” (to go) to form “ir + infinitive.”

For example, “Eu vou viajar” literally means “I go travel,” but it is similar in purpose to the English expression “I am going to travel.”

To form the informal future tense, “ir” can be used only in the simple present tense.

Simple Future Tense

The formal simple future tense is also used to express events in the future and is more common in written literature. The regular verb conjugation uses the infinitive as a stem. Conjugation endings are the same for all three verb groups.

In addition to expressing events in the future, the simple future tense can also be used to express conjecture or possibility, e.g., “A menina terá 15 anos” (The girl might be 15 years old), “Onde estará meu celular?” (Where could my cell phone be?).

Another less common use of the simple future tense is giving commands, e.g., “Não mentirá” (You shall/will not lie), “Sentará aqui” (You shall/will sit here), etc.

Irregular Verbs

The verbs “dizer” (to say), “fazer” (to do), and “trazer” (to bring) change their stem to “dir-,” “far-,” and “trar-,” respectively, to form the simple conditional tense conjugation. These three verbs are irregular and must be memorized.

Examples

Below are some examples that use the simple future tense:

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