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.
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2 Future tense in Latin 3 Future tense in French |
In English, as in most Germanic languages, there is no future tense in the sense of a specific inflection that marks a verb for futurity after the fashion of the markers that appear in the preterite forms of the past tense. Rather, the future tense is marked by the use of a number of auxiliary verbs.
The verb shall formerly appeared as a future tense marker. It is now obsolescent in that function, but appears in a desiderative function with subjunctive force in legal ordinances and similar documents:
Future tense in English
and in strong declarations of intent or resolve:
Now will serves as the ordinary marker of the English future tense. The former distinction between shall and will may have been levelled due to the reduction, in most ordinary speech, of either form to the contraction 'll. See shall for a discussion on where to properly use these two auxiliary verbs.
The verb phrase be going to also marks a future construction in English; it too is frequently contracted. Going-to future marks future planned activity and prediction based on fact. For example: I am going to do my homework tomorrow. It is going to rain on Wednesday.
There are other forms expressing futurity in English, videlicet:
- be to (fixed and inevitable event or change in the future, and in reporting of news, frequently in the passive; "The government is to introduce new taxes." "The health inspector decreed that the factory is to be closed until proper sanitary conditions are met.")
- be likely (to express likelihood; "It is very likely for them to make up another feeble excuse when they get back")
- other modal verbs and structures:
- "I might ring you – so long as I find the time."
- "You could go to the cinema with them later on."
- "There is every/little likelihood that she will fail the exam."
- By this time next week, we will have been going to school for 14 years already!
- By 2020, aircraft will most certainly have passed the speed of sound whilst carrying passengers throughout our world.
- Next Wednesday, I will have been working here for one entire month.
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 love
amabitis You (plural) will love
amabunt They will loveThis method of producing the future tense in Latin was replaced in the Romance languages by another form using the infinitive plus an ending.
French has two forms of future tense: the futur proche and the futur simple.
The futur 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) and etre (to be, futur simple stem = ser). For instance:
The futur proche uses the correct present form of aller (to go) and then has the infinitive after: je mange, je vais manger = I eat, I will eat.
Notice that the futur proche, which resembles the be-going to future, actually translates as the will future, while the futur simple is the opposite!
See also: past tense, present tense, grammatical aspect.Future tense in French
Futur simple
Je mange I eat
Je mangerai I will eat
Nous allons We go
Nous irons We will go
The futur simple usually refers to events that will happen further away in time than the futur simple.Futur proche