Future timeFrench words

*Welcome to the future!* By the time you finish this course, the French future tense will be part of your past. Cool, right? Let’s jump in! There are two types of future tenses in French: *Futur Proche* – mostly used to talk about something to happen soon or with certainty *Futur Simple* – mostly used to talk about something to happen later in the future

*Meaning of each tense* As you can see, you can say something will happen using both tenses. However, each tense gives the sentences a slightly different meaning. Let's examine the possible meanings of the previous sentences closely: "Je le ferai." - this means *I will do it* at some point, not knowing when exactly yet "Je vais le faire." - this means *I am going to do it* now, or very soon "Il parlera à son ami." - this means *He will talk to his friend* when he has the chance to do so "Il va parler à son amie." - this means *He is going to talk to his friend* at this moment, we can see him walking towards her We believe you got the idea...

*FUTUR PROCHE* This tense is used *to talk about something certain going to happen at a specific time in the future or to express urgency.* Futur proche is more frequently used in *spoken French*, unlike future simple, which is used more in writing. In order to be able to use futur proche, you need to be able to conjugate the verb ALLER (to go) in present tense: "je vais" "tu vas" "il va" "nous allons" "vous allez" "ils vont" The reason is that this tense is *formed by combining the present tense of ALLER, plus adding the infinitive of the verb you want to convey the meaning of*. Example: "Je vais aller à la pharmacie." - I am going to go to a pharmacy.

*Negative form of FUTUR PROCHE* The negative form is fairly easy to create: simply *put the negative particles NE and PAS before and after the verb ALLER*. "Je pense qu'il ne va pas neiger." - I think it's not going to snow. "Ils ne vont pas quitter le quartier." - They are not going to leave the neighborhood. When listening to a natural conversation between two or more French people, you may notice they drop the NE part. Although in writing, it should always be used. Not using the NE part is considered informal.

*Questions in FUTUR PROCHE* To form a question in future proche, we do it the same three ways as in the present tense: *1) Inversion* *2) Using 'est-ce que'* *3) Rising intonation using the sentence structure of the indicative* Please note that it is necessary to add the *-t-* in questions, to keep the pronunciation natural: "Va-t-elle manger ... ?" "Va-t-il dormir ... ?" "Va-t-on faire... ?"

*FUTUR SIMPLE* Now that we have the FUTUR PROCHE covered, let's have a closer look at FUTUR SIMPLE. This tense is more commonly *used in written French and is considered rather formal.* *The time of actions expressed with this tense is not certain.* *We use it when talking hypothetically, about consequences, or when having a request*. Futur simple is not compound - the tense is *expressed in only one word. More specifically, by its suffix added after the infinitive form of a verb.* The suffixes are as follows: -ai -as -a -ons -ez -ont Example: "Je parlerAI" "Tu mangerAS" "Nous chercherONS"

*Negative form of FUTUR SIMPLE* The negative form is fairly simple. Just add the *negative particle NE before and PAS (or JAMAIS - never) after the verb*, like so: "Ils ne mentiront pas à leur père." - They will not lie to their father. The phenomenon of dropping the NE part in spoken language applies to all tenses in French, the futur simple not being an exception.

*Questions in FUTUR SIMPLE* Just like in other tenses, you can ask a question using inversion, intonation, or the phrase "est-ce que..." in the future simple too. Knowing what you already know, you may be able to deduce the form easily: "Mangeras-tu des grenouilles ?" "Este-ce qu'il mentiront à leur père ?" "Tu oseras à inviter cette fille au cinéma ?"

*FUTURE SIMPLE of irregular verbs* As French verbs are divided into three groups, the 3rd of them containing irregular verbs, let's now have a look at the future simple forms of the most frequent of them. AVOIR "j’aurai" "tu auras" "Il/Elle aura" "Nous aurons" "Vous aurez" "Ils/Elles auront" ÊTRE "je serai" "tu seras" "il/elle/on sera" "nous serons" "vous serez" "ils/elles seront" ALLER "j'irai" "tu iras" "il/elle/on ira" "nous irons" "vous irez" "ils/elles iront"

*Futur simple of the verbs with -ayer-* There are a few more things to mention about the future simple. *Verbs with -ayer- change the -y- into -i- in singular and 3rd person of plural in this tense*, like the verbs below: "PAYER" (to pay) "je paierai" "tu paieras" "il/elle/on paiera" "nous paierons" "vous paierez" "ils/elles paieront" "NETTOYER" (to clean) "je nettoierai" "tu nettoieras" "il/elle/on nettoiera" "nous nettoierons" "vous nettoierez" "ils/elles nettoieront"

*Verbs that make a double consonant in FUTUR SIMPLE* Also, the *verbs ending with -eler and -eter double the consonant before mute -e-* (ie. E which we do not pronounce). For example the verbs "JETER" (to throw / discard) "je jetterai" "tu jetteras" "il/elle/on jettera" "nous jetterons" "vous jetterez" "ils/elles jetteront" "APPELER" (to call) "j'appellerai" "tu appelleras" "il/elle/on appellera" "nous appellerons" "vous appellerez" "ils/elles appelleront"