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Future tense

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For the second season episode of , see "Future Tense (Enterprise episode)".
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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Future tenses in English

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.

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 properly to use these two auxiliary verbs.

The verb shall can also be used as a future tense marker, but it is now growing less used in that function. It appears in a desiderative function with subjunctive force in legal ordinances and similar documents:

and in strong declarations of intent or resolve: 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. "Going to" is often contracted in spoken English to "gonna". For example: It's gonna rain on Wednesday.

Simple Future Tense

The structure of the Simple Future Tense is:

 

 
subject 
+ 
auxiliary verb WILL 
+ 
main verb 

 


  
  
invariable 
   
base 

 


We
will 
sing 

 




To make a sentence negative, simply add not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. To make it a question, exchange the subject and auxiliary verb.


The simple future tense can be used in conjunction with the verb to think as well as predictions (I think I will watch a movie. There will be a colony on mars by 2050.). It can also be used to indicate a state of being, such as I will be in Chicago.



Future Continuous Tense


The structure of the Future Continuous Tense is:















 
 
subject 
+ 
auxiliary verb WILL 
+ 
auxiliary verb BE 
+ 
main verb 

 

 
 
invariable 
 
invariable 
 
present participle 

 
 
We
will 
be 
singing 

 



To make a sentence negative, simply add not between will and be. To make it a question, exchange the subject and auxiliary verb will.


The future continuous tense is used to indicate an action that occurs at a certain moment in the future.  The action will start before the moment, but will not have finished. It will be snowing when you come home.



Future Perfect Tense


The structure of the Future Perfect Tense is:















 
 
subject 
+ 
auxiliary verb WILL 
+ 
auxiliary verb HAVE 
+ 
main verb 

 

 
 
invariable 
 
invariable 
 
past participle 

 
 
We
will 
have 
sung 

 



To make a sentence negative, simply add not between will and have. To make it a question, exchange the subject and auxiliary verb will.


The future perfect tense is used to express an action in the future before another action in the future. In essence, it indicates past in the future. The football game will have finished before you leave work.



Future Perfect Continuous Tense


The structure of the Future Perfect Continuous Tense is:















 
 
subject 
+
auxiliary verb WILL 
+ 
auxiliary verb HAVE 
+
auxiliary verb BE 
+ 
main verb 

 

 
 
invariable 

invariable 
 
past participle 
 
present participle 

 
 
We
will 
have
been  
singing 

 



To make a sentence negative, simply add not between will and have (i.e., "... will not have ..."). To make it a question, exchange the subject and auxiliary verb will (i.e., "will we ...?").


The future perfect continuous tense is used to express a future on-going action with reference to some definite point in the future. So in other words, the tense is used for an action that had continued up to the future moment we are thinking about. I will have been waiting for two hours when her plane arrives.  "Will have been waiting" is the on-going action, the definite point in the future is "when her plane arrives".



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 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 tense in French


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





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-), 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 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 va
nous allons
vous allez
ils vont


Note: There is no distinction between the english present and present continuos tenses.
je vais = I go, I am going



Futur parfait


Equivalent of English I will 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



Future Tense in Spanish


In Spanish, there are three main tenses that describe the future: the futuro simple, futuro con "ir", 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-


 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.



Futuro con \"Ir\"


The futuro con "ir" is, as its name implies, formed by using the present form of ir, to go, the preposition a, and the infinitive form of the desired verb. Usually, this translates in English as "to be going to verb."



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."


See also: past tense, present tense, grammatical aspect.






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