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French future tense cheat sheet Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

French future tense cheat sheet

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

le futur proche

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.

Aller

je vais
+ infinitive
tu vas
+ infinitive
il va
+ infinitive
nous allons
+ infinitive
vous allez
+ infinitive
ils vont
+ infinitive
 

le futur simple

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)
infinitive + The endings for the simple future are: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont.

irregular stems

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)

Irregu­lars: futur simple: avoir, être, vouloir

avoir
être
vouloir
j'aurai
je serai
je voudrai
tu auras
tu seras
tu voudras
il aura
il sera
il voudra
nous aurons
nous serons
nous voudrons
vous aurez
vous serez
nous voudrez
ils auront
ils seront
ils voudront

More irregu­lars: futur simple

pouvoir
faire
aller
savoir
venir
je pourrai
je ferai
j'irai
je saurai
je viendrai
tu pourras
tu feras
tu iras
tu sauras
tu viendras
il pourra
il fera
il ira
il saura
il viendra
nous pourrons
nous ferons
nous irons
nous saurons
nouns viendrons
vous pourrez
vous ferez
vous irez
vous saurez
vous viendrez
ils pourront
ils feront
ils iront
il sauront
ils viendront
falloir: il faudra
plouvoir: il pleuvra

except­ions: futur simple

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,