French future tense cheat sheet Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by miss_shayshay

Le futur proche: the near future in French
Le futur proche, also known as le futur composé, is used to talk about actions in the near future. It corres­ponds to the English structure going to + infini­tive, and emphasises that there is already an intention behind the action.

We use the futur proche in the following cases:
to talk about an action that will take place shortly
to talk about a planned action in the near future

To conjugate the futur proche, we use the present tense of the verb aller as an auxiliary verb, followed by the infinitive of the main verb.

The 'simple' future (le futur) is so-named because it is a one-word tense. In other words, its formation is simple because there is no auxiliary.

The endings for the simple future are: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. The future stem for -er and -ir verbs is the infini­tive. For regular -re verbs, the stem is the infinitive minus the final e. In all cases, the future stem ends in -r: this sound charac­terizes the future and the condit­ion­al.The French simple future tense is generally translated into English with the modal auxiliary 'will.'

The simple future is more formal than the immediate future, although both tenses may be used in most contexts. We mostly use this tense to talk about future plans or intent­ions, as well as to make predic­tions about what may occur in the future.

We use the futur simple in the following cases:
to talk about future intentions
to make suppos­itions or predic­tions about the future
in condit­ional sentences (if sentences)

être — ser- (elle sera)
avoir — aur- (j’aurai)
aller — ir- (nous irons)
faire — fer- (tu feras)
vouloir — voudr- (ils voudront)
pouvoir — pourr- (vous pourrez)
devoir — devr- (elle devra)
falloir — faudr- (il faudra)

Exceptions to the conjug­ation rules:
A short e in the word stem receives a grave accent (accent grave) in the futur simple
Example: peser – je pèserai
Some verbs double their conson­ants.
Example: jeter – je jetterai
For some verbs ending in -rir, the i is omitted before adding the future ending.
Example: courir – je courrai
For verbs ending in -yer, the y becomes an i in the futur simple. (For verbs ending in -ayer, both y and i are permitted)
Example: employer – j’empl­oierai
Verbs ending in -oir are irregular in the futur simple, as are aller, envoyer, faire and venir.
Example: pouvoir – je pourrai,