Future tense
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French aimera, meaning "will love", derived from the verb aimer. English does not have a future tense formed by verb inflection in this way, although it has a number of ways to express the future, particularly the construction with the auxiliary verb will or shall or is/am/are going to and grammarians differ in whether they describe such constructions as representing a future tense in English.
The "future" expressed by the future tense usually means the future relative to the moment of speaking, although in contexts where relative tense is used it may mean the future relative to some other point in time under consideration.
Expressions
The nature of the future, necessarily uncertain and at varying distances ahead, means that the speaker may refer to future events with the modality either of probability or intent. Whether future expression is realis or irrealis depends not so much on an objective ontological notion of future reality, but rather on the degree of the speaker's conviction that the event will in fact come about.In many languages there is no grammatical indication of future tense. Future meaning is supplied by the context, with the use of temporal adverbs such as "later", "next year", etc. Such adverbs sometimes develop into grammaticalized future tense markers.
In other languages, mostly of European origin, specific markers indicate futurity. These structures constitute a future tense. In many cases, an auxiliary verb is used, as in English, where futurity is often indicated by the modal auxiliary will. However, some languages combine such an auxiliary with the main verb to produce a simple future tense. This is the origin of the future tense in Western Romance languages such as French and Italian.
A given language may have more than one way to express futurity. English, for example, often refers to future events using present tense forms or other structures such as the going-to future, besides the canonical form with will/shall. In addition, the verb forms used for the future tense can also be used to express other types of meaning; English again provides examples of this.
Expressions of relative tense
It is sometimes possible to mark the time of an occurrence as being in the past or future not relative to the present moment, but relative to a time of reference, which can itself be in the past or future relative to the present moment. Thus an occurrence may be marked as taking place in the "past of the future", "future of the past", etc.The past of the future, marking an occurrence expected to take place before some future reference time, is typically marked by a future perfect form, as in the English "I shall have finished by tomorrow afternoon."
The "future of the past" may be expressed in various ways in English. It is possible to use would in its capacity as the past tense of the future marker will ; for example: "The match started at midday but would not end until the evening." It is also possible to use the past tense of other expressions that express future reference, as in "I was going to wait"; "I was to wait"; "I was about to wait." Such expressions can also be put into other tenses and moods, to achieve future reference in hypothetical and future situations, e.g., "I would be going to take part if..."; "I shall be about to leave." More examples can be found in the section Expressions of relative future in the article on the going-to future.
Germanic languages
In Germanic languages, including English, a common expression of the future is using the present tense, with the futurity expressed using words that imply future action. There is no simple future tense as such. However, the future can also be expressed by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain present tense auxiliary verbs with the simple infinitive of the main verb. These auxiliary forms vary between the languages. Other, generally more informal, expressions of futurity use an auxiliary with the compound infinitive of the main verb.English
English grammar provides a number of ways to indicate the future nature of an occurrence. Some argue that English does not have a future tense—that is, a grammatical form that always indicates futurity—nor does it have a mandatory form for the expression of futurity. However, there are several generally accepted ways to indicate futurity in English, and some of them—particularly those that use will or shall—are frequently described as future tense.The will/shall future consists of the modal verb will or shall together with the bare infinitive of the main verb, as in "He will win easily" or "I shall do it when time permits". The meaning of this construction is close to that expressed by the future tense in other languages. However the same construction with will or shall can have other meanings that do not indicate futurity, or else indicate some modality in addition to futurity. For details of these meanings, see the sections on will and shall in the article on English modal verbs.
The form of the will/shall future described [|above] is frequently called the simple future. Other constructions provide additional auxiliaries that express particular aspects: the future progressive as in "He will be working"; the future perfect as in "They will have finished"; and the future perfect progressive as in "You will have been practising." For detail on these, see the relevant sections of Uses of English verb forms.
Several other English constructions commonly refer to the future:
- Present tense forms, as in "The train leaves at five," or, "My cousins arrive tomorrow." Since these grammatical forms are used more canonically to refer to present situations, they are not generally described as future tense; in sentences like those just given they may be described as "present tense with future meaning". Use of the present tense is mandatory in some subordinate clauses referring to the future, such as "If I feel better next week,..." and "As soon as they arrive,...". For more details see the sections on the simple present, present progressive and dependent clauses in the article on English verb forms.
- The going-to future, e.g., "John is going to leave tonight."
- The construction with a finite form of the copula verb be together with the to-infinitive, e.g., "John is to leave tonight". For details see am to.
- The construction with to be about to, e.g., "John is about to leave", referring to the expected immediate future.
- Use of modal verbs with future meaning, to combine the expression of future time with certain modality: "I must do this" ; "We should help him"; "I can get out of here"; "We may win"; "You might succeed". The same modal verbs are also often used with present rather than future reference. For details of their meanings and usage, see English modal verbs.
The various ways of expressing the future carry different meanings, implying not just futurity but also aspect and/or modality. The precise interpretation must be based on the context. In particular there is sometimes a distinction in usage between the will/shall future and the going-to future. For more information see the going-to future article.
German
The use of the present tense in future meaning is much more common in German than it is in English. Especially in colloquial German, but also in the written standard language, future tenses are quite rarely used if the future meaning is already evident through context or a temporal adverb or clause. For example:- In zehn Jahren bin ich Millionär.
- Ich werde dich morgen nach der Arbeit anrufen.
- Ich werde dich angerufen haben
- imperative future: du sollst loben
- indicative uncertain future : ich will loben
- indicative certain future, or indicative future I: ich werde loben
- indicative conditional future, or conjunctive II future: ich würde loben
Dutch
can express the future in three ways:- gaan + infinitive: Ik ga het boek lezen. "Gaan" is a cognate of "to go".
- zullen + infinitive: Ik zal het boek lezen. "Zullen" is a cognate of "shall".
- present tense + context or a temporal adverb or clause: Hoe lang blijft hij in Nederland? Its English-language equivalent uses the continuous or imperfective aspect.
- express a promise or a proposal
- emphasize that something will certainly happen
- express that an event is likely going to take place
Gaan + infinitive can be compared with the English "going to". It is used:
- to express an intended action
- to say that an event is going to take place
Icelandic and Old Norse
- munu expressing a probable future
- skulu implying obligation or determination.
A common auxiliary expression of the future, which takes the compound infinitive, is:
- ætla expressing intention.
Like many other Germanic languages, the future can also be expressed by simply using the present tense and having in the sentence words that imply future action. Because of this, if it is already evident from the sentence that one is talking about the future, then the verb is almost always in the present tense.
Norwegian
Current standard Norwegian auxiliaries are:- vil
- skal
- kan
- kommer/kjem til å
- mon.
- etla
Danish
Det vil aldrig ske "That will never happen" but Det skal ej ske "That shall not happen".
Hvad skal du i aften? "What will you tonight?"; Jeg skal besøge mine forældre i weekenden "I shall visit my parents this weekend"; Skal du hjem nu? "Will you go home now?".
Han vil hentes "He wants to_be_picked_up"; Han skal hentes "He must be_picked_up". Han vil blive hentet "He will become picked_up ", but Han skal blive hentet "He will become picked_up ".
Jeg skal til fødselsdag i morgen "I shall to birthday_party tomorrow". Det bliver sjov "That becomes fun". Vi bliver 15 "We become 15 ". Han bliver 40 "He becomes 40".
Swedish
skall strongly implies intention, but with an adverb such as nog "probably" it can avoid the implication of intentionality: Det här skall nog gå bra "This will probably go well". However, the past tense of skall, skulle, can be used without such an adverb to express predictions in the past: Pelle sa, att det skulle bli varmt på eftermiddagen "Pelle said that it would be warm in the afternoon."Pure future, regardless of intention, is usually expressed with kommer att : Det här kommer att gå bra "This will go well", Du kommer att överleva det här "You will survive this".
Generally, future tense is sparsely used in spoken Swedish, with the verb instead being put in present tense and accompanied by a distinct time specification: Jag åker till Spanien på fredag "I travel to Spain on Friday" Då ses vi imorgon. "Then we meet tomorrow"
Latin and Romance
The future tense forms in Latin varied by conjugation. Here is a sample of the future tense for the first conjugation verb amare, "to love".| amabo | I will love |
| amabis | you will love |
| amabit | he, she, it will love |
| amabimus | we will love |
| amabitis | you will love |
| amabunt | they will love |
See Latin conjugation for further details. Sound changes in Vulgar Latin made future forms difficult to distinguish from other verb forms, and the Latin simple future forms were gradually replaced by periphrastic structures involving the infinitive and an auxiliary verb, such as debere, venire, velle, or especially habere. All of the modern Romance languages have grammaticalized one of these periphrastic constructions for expressing the future tense; none of them has preserved the original Latin future.
Future tense with ''habere''
While Classical Latin used a set of suffixes to the main verb for the future tense, later Vulgar Latin adopted the use of habere with the infinitive, as for example:petant aut non petant venire habet
From this construction, the major Western Romance languages have simple future tense forms that derive from the infinitive followed by a conjugated form of the verb "to have". As the auxiliary verb lost its modal force, it also lost syntactic autonomy and phonological substance.
Thus the sequence of Latin verbs amare habeo gave rise to French aimerai, Spanish amaré, etc. "I will love".
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation of avoir | Future tense |
| je | aimer | ai | aimerai |
| tu | aimer | as | aimeras |
| il/elle/on | aimer | a | aimera |
| nous | aimer | avons | aimerons |
| vous | aimer | avez | aimerez |
| ils/elles | aimer | ont | aimeront |
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation of aver | Future tense |
| ieu | aimar | ai | aimarai |
| tu | aimar | as | aimaràs |
| el/ela/òm | aimar | a | aimarà |
| nos | aimar | avèm | aimarem |
| vos | aimar | avètz | aimaretz |
| eles/elas | aimar | an | aimaràn |
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation of haver | Future tense |
| eu | comer | hei | comerei |
| tu | comer | hás | comerás |
| ele/ela/você | comer | há | comerá |
| nós | comer | hemos | comeremos |
| vós | comer | heis | comereis |
| eles/elas/vocês | comer | hão | comerão |
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation of haber | Future tense |
| yo | comprar | he | compraré |
| tú | comprar | has | comprarás |
| él/ella/usted | comprar | ha | comprará |
| nosotros | comprar | hemos/habemos | compraremos |
| vosotros | comprar | habéis | compraréis |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | comprar | han | comprarán |
Phonetic changes also affected the infinitive in the evolution of this form, so that in the modern languages the future stem is not always identical to the infinitive. Consider the following Spanish examples:
- "go out": infinitive salir → 1st. sing. future saldré in lieu of *saliré
- "know": infinitive saber → 2nd. sing future "sabrás" in lieu of *saberás
- "do": infinitive hacer → 3rd sing. future hará in lieu of *hacerá
- "want": infinitive querer → 3rd pl. future querrán in lieu of *quererán
Romanian
- "love": infinitive a iubi → 3rd sing. future va iubi
- "love": infinitive a iubi → 3rd sing. future o să iubească
Portuguese
| cantar | bater | partir | por | |
| eu | cantarei | baterei | partirei | porei |
| tu | cantarás | baterás | partirás | porás |
| ele/você | cantará | baterá | partirá | porá |
| nós | cantaremos | bateremos | partiremos | poremos |
| vós | cantareis | batereis | partireis | poreis |
| eles/vocês | cantarão | baterão | partirão | porão |
However, there are multiple composed future conjugations such as the following ones:
- vou cantar
- irei cantar
- vim cantar
- venho cantar
- virei cantar
- hei de cantar
- vou estar cantando
- estarei cantando
In Portuguese a pronoun may be placed between the root verb and the future tense ending, as in dar-lhe-ei, where the pronoun lhe is inserted into the future verb darei, between the stem and the future tense ending. This phenomenon is called mesoclisis.
Sardinian
Sardinian, due to its early breaking off from Proto-Romance, displays different traits in its morphology. Notably, in the future tense, the verb habeo is instead proclitic, and does not have an individual conjugation on the verb. Instead, aere is conjugated into present tense, and the other verb's infinitive form is used. Thusly, app'aere, app'appidu and app'aere appidu are aere's future, perfect, and future perfect.Slavic languages
Slovak
In the Slovak language, the future tense is formed only with verbs with imperfective grammatical aspect, with the auxiliary verb byť in future tense:To this auxiliary verb, the infinitive of the verb to be put into future tense is simply appended:
- robiť : budem robiť
- hovoriť : budeme hovoriť
Polish
The future tense can be formed in two different ways depending on the aspect of the verb. For imperfective verbs, Polish uses the future tense of być plus the past tense of the verb at the third person or the infinitive. For instance:
- mówić :
-będziesz mówił / mówiła / mówiło /mówić.
-będzie mówił / mówiła / mówiło /mówić.
-będziemy mówili / mówiły / mówić.
-będziecie mówili / mówiły / mówić.
-będą mówili / mówiły / mówić.
refers to a male, to a female and is neuter, used with inanimate objects. In Plural, refers to the masculine-personal gender and to non-masculine-personal. The form with the infinitive is less common.
Perfective verbs have only the past and future tenses. As they have no present tense, the rules used to form the present tense in imperfective verbs are used to give the sense of futurity to perfective verbs. For instance, the perfective form of mówić is conjugated as follows:
- powiedzieć
-powiesz
-powie
-powiemy
-powiecie
-powiedzą
This example follows the rules of the verbs which conjugate according to the model -em, esz. The other models are -am, asz, -ę, esz, -ę, isz and -ę, ysz. Irregular verbs may change their root, but never their desinence.
Celtic languages
Scottish Gaelic
In Scottish Gaelic, the future tense is formed in regular verbs by adding aidh or idh to the end of the root form of the verb.- Danns. -> Dannsaidh mi.
- Cuir. -> Cuiridh i.
- Cha téid mi...
- Chan fheuch am peasan sin idir.
- An ith thu sin?
- Am pòg thu i?
The copula is bidh, cha bhi, am bi, and nach bi.
- Bidh mi a' tighinn!
- Cha bhi e an seo a-màireach.
- Am bi thu air falbh as t-samhradh?
- Nach bi sibh a' fuireach airson a' bhìdh?
- Tha ise ag ràdh gum bi esan a' dol.
- Tha mi an dòchas nach bi iad sgìth.
Irish
- Glan. -> Glanfaidh mé.
- Cuir. -> Cuirfidh sí.
- Eistigh. -> Eisteoidh mé.
- Imir. -> Imreoidh sí.
- Glan. -> Glanfaimid.
- Cuir. -> Cuirfimid.
- Eistigh. -> Eisteoimid.
- Imir. -> Imreoimid.
- Ní fhreastalóidh mé...
- An iosfaith tú sin?
- An bpogfaigh tú í?
- Abair. -> Déarfaidh sí.
- Beir. -> Béarfaidh sí.
- Faigh. -> Gheobhaidh sí.
- Ith. -> Iosfaidh sí.
- Tar. -> Tiocfaidh sí.
- Teigh. -> Rachaidh sí.
- Feic. -> Chífidh sí.
The linking verb is go mbí or nach bí.
- Duirt sí go mbeidh sé ag dul.
- Tá súil agam nach mbeidh tuirse acu.
Welsh
Fe fydda i yn...
Fe fyddi di yn...
Fe fydd e yn... etc.
More commonly Welsh uses a construction with "Mynd"
"Rwy'n mynd i weld y ffilm yfory"
Futurity can also be expressed by using words that imply future action
Dwi'n mynd yna heddiw: I am going there today.
The simple future, which uses verb suffixes conjugated with the verb, is used to express determination of action or to emphasise confidence in outcome. As in the future of bod, the affirmative marker is fe''.
Indo-Aryan languages
Hindi
In Hindi, the future tense is formed in two ways. First, by suffix addition to the subjunctive forms and the other by using a future participle.Future Indicative
The first way to construct the future tense is from the subjunctive forms by adding the suffix -gā which declines for number and gender of the grammatical person. The table [|below] shows the subjunctive and the future forms of the verb karnā.Future Participle
The second way to form the future tense is using the future participle which is constructed from the oblique infinitive by adding the suffix vālā which also declines for the number and the gender of the pronoun. The participle is always followed by the auxiliary verb honā in its finite form.| singular | plural | |
| masculine | karnēvālā | karnēvālē |
| feminine | karnēvālī | karnēvālī̃ |
The auxiliary verb when used with the future participle can be put into four moods; indicative, presumptive, subjunctive and contrafactual. The table below shows the future participle with the auxiliary verb in the present indicative mood. The table below shows the future tense formed using the future participle for the verb karnā.
Future Imperatives
Hindi also has two tenses of imperatives, the present and the future. The conjugation for present and future imperatives are mentioned in the below tablef or the verb karnā. Hindi also has third person imperatives which is formed using the subjunctive forms.Semitic languages
Hebrew
has a distinction between past and future tenses which is similar in form to those used in other Semitic languages such as Arabic and Aramaic. Gesenius refers to the past and future verb forms as Perfect and Imperfect, respectively, separating completed action from uncompleted action. However, the usage of verbs in these forms does not always have the same temporal meaning as in Indo-European languages, mainly due to the common use of a construct of inverting the time reference with a prefix "Waw consecutive". With this construct, the Perfect-consecutive refers to the future and the Imperfect-consecutive refers to the past.Usage of the imperfect to discuss future events is somewhat uncommon in Biblical Hebrew, as the Bible mainly discusses past events. It can be found in quoted speech, such as in the words of Moses :
The Perfect-consecutive is commonly found in prophetic text, describing an unspecified future, as in the Book of Isaiah:
Modern Hebrew always employs the imperfect as the future tense. The usage of "Waw consecutive" has practically disappeared, except for quotes from the Bible and Poetic language.
Arabic
To form future tense in Arabic the prefix "sa" is added to the present tense verb, or "sawfa".For example, consider the sentence:
I eat apples > "آكلُ تفاحاً" "Akulu tuffahan"
To express the future we have two ways:
I will eat apples > "سـآكلُ تفاحاً" "Saakulu tuffahan"
or:
I will eat apples > "سوف آكلُ تفاحاً" "Sawfa akulu tuffahan"
The first is written as part of the verb, whereas the latter is written as a Clitic to indicate the future but preceding the verb.
In Classical Arabic the latter indicates an individual future action that usually takes place further in the future than the first mentioned form, which is usually used with verbs that relate to other actions, and mostly referring to rather near future actions.
However, in Modern Standard Arabic the distinction is minimal.
Moreover, the indication of the future tense in dialectal Arabic is quite varied from one dialect to the next.
Generally speaking, the words meaning "want to", "go to", "intend to", and many others are used daily to indicate future actions.
In Moroccan Arabic, the word "Ghad" is used to indicate future, which literally means "there", that is in some way similar to the English formation "there I go.."