future tense

 

In linguistics, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by a verb as not having happened yet, but expected to in the future.

Future tense in English

In English, as in most Germanic languages, there is no simple future tense. Futurity is expressed either by using words that imply future action ("I go to Berlin tomorrow.") or by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain present tense verbs with the stem of the verb which represents the true action of the sentence.

The tradition that English has a future tense traces to the period of 300 years, from 1066 to about 1350, when Anglo-Norman was the official language of England. Norman, unlike English, is a Romance language; and the Romance languages, unlike Germanic languages, do have a simple future tense.

The most common auxiliary verbs used to express futurity are will, should, can, may, and must. Of these, "will" is the most neutral and it is the most commonly used. "Should" implies obligation or commitment to the action contemplated. "Can" implies the ability to commit the action but does not presuppose obligation or firm commitment to the action. "May" expresses the least sense of commitment and is the most permissive; it is also a verb used in the auxiliary construction that suggests conditionality. "Must," by contrast, expresses the highest degree of obligation and commitment ("I must go") and is temporally nearest to present time in its expression of futurity ("I must go now.")

To wit:

• I shall/will go
• I should go
• I can go
• I may go
• I must go

To express futurity in the negative, a negative adverb - such as "not" or "never" is inserted after the auxiliary verb, as in all other auxiliary constructions.

• I shall/will not go
• I should never go
• I cannot go
• I may never go
• I must not go

In all of these, action within a future range of time is contemplated. But in all cases, the sentences are actually voiced in the present tense, since there is no proper future tense in English. It is the implication of futurity that makes these present tense auxiliary constructions amount to a compound future quasi-tense.

Note that some commentators, especially in England, prefer that the first person, whether 'I' or 'we' decline with 'shall' as the auxiliary and that the other two persons decline with 'will'. This does not describe, nor has it ever described, common usage anywhere in the world, although there are people who follow it. ^[1] It was originally suggested in Chambers's 17th century grammar.

This reality, that expression of futurity in English is a function of the present tense, is born out by the ability to negate the implication of futurity without making any change to the auxiliary construction. When a verbal construction that suggests futurity (such as "I shall go") is subsequently followed by information that establishes a condition or presupposition, or the active verb stem itself contradicts a future indicative application of the construction, then any sense of future tense is negated - especially when the auxiliary will is used within its literal meaning, which is to voluntarily 'will' an action. For example:

• Person A says: "You will go now. You will not stay."
• Person B answers: "I shall go nowhere. I will stay."

The second 'will', in B's response, is not only expressing volition here but is being used in contradistinction to the usual first person 'shall' in order to achieve emphasis. Similarly, in the case of the second and third persons, 'will' operates with 'shall' in reverse.

For example:

            A: Will he be at the café at six o'clock?
            B: He will be there.  [Normal affirmation]
      BUT   B: He shall be there.  

[Stresses that this is not the usual pattern that was previously established or to be expected (Last time he was late or did not show up)]

Additional auxiliary constructions used to express futurity are labelled as follows:

Future Continuous: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Present Participle

• I shall/will be going
• You will be singing
• He will be sleeping
• We may be coming
• They may be travelling
• It will be snowing when Nancy arrives
• It will not be raining when Josie leaves

Future Perfect: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle

• I shall/will be gone
• You will have sung
• He will have slept
• We may have come ("We may be come" can still be used poetically, but it is obsolete in speech)
• They may have travelled
• It will have snowed
• It will not have rained

Future Perfect Habitual (or Future Perfect Continuous): Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle + Present Participle

• I shall/will have been going
• You will have been singing
• He will have been sleeping
• We may have been coming
• They may have been travelling
• It will have been snowing
• It will not have been raining

Future tense in Latin

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 (shall) love
 amabis    You (singular) will love
 amabit    He, she, it will love
 amabimus  We will (shall) love
 amabitis  You (plural) will love
 amabunt   They will love

This method of producing the future tense in Latin was replaced in the Romance languages by another form using the infinitive plus an ending.

Future tenses and periphrastic constructions in Romance languages

Languages that have a true future tense include the Romance languages; most also have a periphrastic construction, like English. For example, French has a true future tense j'aimerai, tu aimeras, il aimera, "he will love" (from aimer, to like and il a, he has, so it's literally "He has to love"), but the future is most commonly expressed with the verb aller as an auxiliary: je vais aimer, tu vas aimer, il va aimer.

As in English, this periphrastic construction is also available in the past, by conjugating aller to the imperfect: j'allais voir "I was going to see". Depending on grammatical context, this can sometimes be done with the conditional: Le lendemain, il reconnaîtrait son erreur (The day after, he would recognize his mistake).

Confusingly, Catalan uses the verb anar for periphrastic constructions both in the future (with the preposition a) and the past (without the preposition). In other words, jo vaig a veure is "I will see"; jo vaig veure is "I saw."

Many Romance languages use the future tense also to refer to a supposition or a statement about habit, for example in Spanish: serán las once ("It will be 11 o'clock," meaning "I suppose it's around 11, it must be 11 by now"). This construction is also found in German.

Future tense in French

French has three forms of future tense: the futur proche, the futur simple, and the futur antérieur.

Future simple

The future simple is made by simply taking the infinitive of the verb and adding the correct form of avoir (to have) to the end of the word. In the nous and vous form of the word, the ending is instead just -ons and -ez, respectively. However, there are also some French verbs for which an irregular stem is used, such as aller (to go, futur simple stem = ir-), avoir (to have, futur simple stem = aur-) and etre (to be, futur simple stem = ser-). Note, the stem always ends in "r". For instance:

    manger-   to eat - futur simple stem
 Je mangerai  I will eat 
      ir-     to go - futur simple stem
 Nous irons   We will go

The futur simple usually refers to events that will happen further away in time than the futur proche.

The formations of some of the common irregular verbs are:
acheter = j'achèterai
aller = j'irai
appeler = j'appellerai
appuyer = j'appuierai
avoir = j'aurai
devoir = je devrai
employer = j'emploierai
envoyer = j'enverrai
être = je serai
faire = je ferai
pouvoir = je pourrai
recevoir = je recevrai
savoir = je saurai
venir = je viendrai
voir = je verrai
vouloir = je voudrai

Futur proche

The future proche uses the correct present form of aller (to go) and then has the infinitive after: je mange, je vais manger = I eat, I am going to eat.

Aller: Je vais, Tu vas, Il/Elle/On va, Nous allons, Vous allez, Ils/Elles vont.

Note: There is no distinction between the English present and present continuous tenses. Je vais = I go, I am going

Futur Antérieur

Equivalent of English I shall have [verb]. Formed by using the future form of avoir or être, plus the past participle.

Examples: J'aurai fini = I will have finished

         Il aura mangé = He will have eaten
         Je serai parti = I will have left
         Il sera venu = He will have come

The past participle of a regular verb ends in either -i, -é or u.
finir --> fini
manger --> mangé
rendre --> rendu

There are many verbs, however, that end in "voir" that are shortened to the first letter of the verb plus "u".
devoir --> dû
voir --> vu
pouvoir --> pu
savoir --> su

Irregular verb stems in Future Tense

Irregular Verb	Irregular Verb Stem	Similar Irregular Verbs
acheter	achèter-	achever, amener, emmener, lever, promener
appeler	appeller-	épeler, jeter, projeter, rappeler
aller	ir-
avoir	aur-
devoir	devr-	recevoir, etc.
envoyer	enverr-
essayer	essaier-	employer, ennuyer, nettoyer, payer
être	ser-
faire	fer-
falloir	faudr-
mourir	mourr-
pleuvoir	pleuvr-
pouvoir	pourr-
savoir	saur-
valoir	vaudr-
venir	viendr-	revenir, devenir, parvenir
voir	verr-	revoir
vouloir	voudr-

Future Tense in Spanish

In Spanish, there are two main tenses that describe the future: the futuro simple, and the futuro perfecto.

Futuro Simple

The futuro simple is formed by, excluding the irregular verbs (e.g. querer, to want, or salir, to go out), appending the following to the end of the infinitive form of a verb:

Ending	Verb Form
-é	1st person singular
-ás	2nd person informal singular
-á	3rd person singular, 2nd person formal singular
-emos	1st person plural
-éis	2nd person informal plural
-án	3rd person plural, 2nd person formal plural

The English equivalent is "will/shall verb."

Irregular Stems of the Futuro Simple

Irregular stems include:

Verb (Meaning)	Stem
salir (to go out)	saldr-
venir (to come)	vendr-
tener (to have)	tendr-
poner (to put)	pondr-
poder (to be able)	podr-
valer (to be worth)	valdr-
haber (to have)	habr-
satisfacer (to satisfy)	satisfar-
saber (to know)	sabr-
caber (to fit)	cabr-
hacer (to do, to make)	har-
decir (to say, to tell)	dir-
querer (to want)	querr-

Note that these irregular stems are also used in the conditional tense.

Other ways of expressing future

Spanish uses combinations of two verbs, where one is used as an auxiliary one. One of the most common structure to express future is "ir" + <infinitive>.

Example: Voy a comprar 'I'm going to buy'

Futuro Perfecto

The futuro perfecto is formed by using the simple future form of the verb haber, to have, and the past participle of the desired verb.

The English equivalent is "will have past participle of verb."

Future tense in Scottish Gaelic

In Gaelic, the future tense is formed in regular verbs by adding aidh or idh to the end of the root form of the verb (idh is used if the final vowel in the root is i).

• Danns mi. (I dance.) -> Dannsaidh mi. (I will dance.)
• Èirich i. (She gets up.) -> Èirichidh i. (She will get up.)

The negative is formed by inserting cha before the root, which is lenited. Chan is substituted if the root begins with a vowel or an f followed by a vowel, which is also lenited.

• Cha dhèanamh e i... (He won't do it...)
• Chan fheuch peasan sin idir. (This brat won't try at all.)

In the interrogative, an is placed before the root of the verb. If the root begins with b, f, m, or p, am is used instead.

• An ith thu sin? (Are you going to eat that?)
• Am pòg thu i? (Will you kiss her?)

As in English, some forms are irregular - mostly common verbs. For example, the root for the word "to see" is faic, but the positive future tense form "will see" is chì.

The copula is bidh (will be), cha bhi (will not be), am bi (interrogative), and nach bi (negative interrogative).

• Bidh mi a' tighinn! (I'm coming!)
• Cha bhi e seo a-màireach. (He won't be here tomorrow.)
• Am bi thu air falbh as t-Samhradh? (Will you be away this summer?)
• Nach bi sibh a' fuireach airson am biadh? (Won't you stay for the food, sir?)

The linking verb (that will be) is gum bi (positive) or nach bi (negative).

• Tha ise ag ràdh gum bi esan a' dol. (She said that he will go.)
• Tha mi 'n dòchas nach bi iad sgìth. (I hope that they won't be sick.)

To form other future tenses - future perfect, for example - simply use present tense grammar but change the verb in one of the above ways as appropriate.

Future Tense in Welsh

Yr Amser Dyfodol

Like most Celtic languages, there is no simple way of forming the future tense. Normally a verb is used to pro-long or decrease the time the subject whilst using the future tense.

• "Mynd" + "Bod" : 'to go' + 'to be' = Dwi'n mynd i dy gasáu: I am going to hate you
• Dwi'n mynd i'ch caniatáu: I am going to permit you.

Futurity can also be expressed by using words that imply future action

• Dwi'n mynd yna heddiw: I am going there today.

See Also

• Grammatical tense
• Past tense
• Present tense

External links

• Future Tense
• 4 Future Tenses Explained
• English Grammar Reference and Exercises

References

1. ^ Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, 1994

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