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Future indicative

Future indicative -- formation
The future tense is extremely regular in its formation; for all verbs, it is made simply by adding the future endings (-ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont) to the future stem. For most verbs the future stem consists of the infinitive, less any final "e."

Examples:

je trouverai
tu trouveras
elle trouvera
nous trouverons
vous trouverez
ils trouveront

j'entendrai
tu entendras
il entendra
nous entendrons
vous entendrez
elles entendront

Many verbs, however, have irregular future stems. In particular, verbs ending like mener and lever take an accent: je mènerai le groupe; verbs like appeler and jeter double their penultimate consonant: elleappellera; and verbs like employer or payer substitute an "i" for their "y": tu paieras. Other common stems are:

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)

Future indicative -- use

The future indicative expresses future action:

Elle ira à la bibliothèque ce soir. (She will go to the library this evening.)
Nous danserons toute la nuit. (We will dance all night long.)

In French the future is also used with certain conjunctions (such as quand, dès que, lorsque, aussitôt que) when they indicate future actions (see also Future perfect -- use):

Elle viendra quand elle pourra. (She'll come when she can.)
Il nous paiera aussitôt que nous finirons. (He'll pay us as soon as we finish.)

Note: the future is not used with quand when quand can be translated as "whenever":

Il travaille quand il veut. (He works whenever he wants.)



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