French · Rung 17 of 26

Simple future and futur proche

There are two futures and they do not mean the same. The futur proche is aller conjugated plus an infinitive, for the immediate or the already decided: je vais partir. The simple future is built on the infinitive plus the endings of avoir — ai, as, a, ons, ez, ont — for the distant or the scheduled: je partirai. Verbs in -re drop the e: prendre gives je prendrai. And there is a short list of irregular stems worth knowing because they are the commonest verbs: être ser-, avoir aur-, aller ir-, faire fer-, pouvoir pourr-, vouloir voudr-, venir viendr-, voir verr-, savoir saur-. After quand, French uses the future where English uses the present: quand tu arriveras, “when you arrive”.

Where this sits

Comes after
Present tense
Opens up
Conditional and politeness

Exercises from this rung

Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest

  1. L'année prochaine, je ___ en France.

    • partirai
    • partis
    • vais partir
    • partirais

    Why The simple future is the infinitive plus the endings of avoir: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. It covers the distant or the scheduled. partirais, with an s, would be conditional.

    easier

  2. Je ___ le train de huit heures. (prendre)

    • prenderai
    • prendreai
    • prendrais
    • prendrai

    Why Verbs in -re drop the final e before the endings: prendre → prendrai, écrire → écrirai, boire → boirai. The future stem always ends in r.

    in between

  3. Quand tu ___, on mangera.

    • arriveras
    • arrivais
    • arrives
    • arriverais

    Why After quand, French uses the future where English uses the present. “When you arrive” is quand tu arriveras, not “quand tu arrives”.

    harder