French le Futur SimpleTense

One of the ways to express the future tense in French is to use the simple future tense, called le futur simple. This tense is basically the equivalent of “will + [verb]” in English, as in “I will graduate next year,” where “will graduate” is the verb “graduate” in the future tense. This is one of the easier conjugations in the French language, and learning it is simply a matter of learning how to form the stems, and a single list of endings.

Forming le futur simple is quite easy, especially compared to some of the other verb tenses. A French verb in le futur simple needs two things: a base (sometimes called a stem or a root) and an ending. For the bases, we’ll start by looking at the three classes of regular verbs in French. For –er and –ir verbs, all you do is use the infinitive form of the verb, so you can just leave it in the ­–er or –ir form. For –re verbs, all you do is remove the –e at the end, meaning that it will change from ­­­­­–re to just –r. Let’s look at some examples of bases:

As you can see, forming the bases for verbs in le futur simple is not difficult at all, so long as you know the infinitive. The next part that you need for this tense is the ending. The endings do not change depending on the verb you’re using; they only change depending on who the subject of the phrase is. The endings are loosely based on the verb avoir in present tense, and they are as follows:

Subject Ending

je -ai

tu -as

il/elle/on -a

nous -ons

vous -ez

ils/elles ­ -ont

Alright, now that you can form the base for a verb in le futur simple and know which ending to use with each subject, let’s look at an example of each regular verb type.

Voyager (-er verb) Finir (-ir verb) Attendre (-re verb)

je voyagerai je finirai j’attendrai

tu voyageras tu finiras tu attendras

il voyagera elle finira on attendra

nous voyagerons nous finirons nous attendrons

vous voyagerez vous finirez vous attendrez

ils voyageront elles finiront elles attendront

You can see with each of these three verbs how the base is the same for each conjugation and only the ending changes according to the subject. This is all there is to the tense, as far as the regular classes of verbs go. As usual with verb tenses, however, there are some irregular verbs as well. Luckily, for le futur simple, the only thing that changes about the irregular verbs is the base. Some of the more common verbs that have irregular bases in le futur simple are listed below (check a dictionary for a complete list):

Verb (Infinitive) Base

être ser-

avoir aur-

faire fer-

aller ir-

devoir devr-

pouvoir pourr-

vouloir voudr-

savoir saur-

venir viendr-

voir verr-

To conjugate one of these verbs in le futur simple, all you do is take the base listed above, and add the appropriate ending for the subject. Two of them are conjugated below as examples:

Faire (fer-) Savoir (saur-)

je ferai je saurai

tu feras tu sauras

il fera elle saura

nous ferons nous saurons

vous ferez vous saurez

ils feront elles feront

Now you have everything you need to conjugate French verbs into le futur simple, a very useful tense for talking about the future. There are some exercises on the next page to help you test your understanding; try to study the above rules first and then complete the exercises, only looking back if you forget something. The worksheet is also available as a download to help you practice,

I. Forming the base

Try to figure out the correct base for le futur simple for the following verbs. Pay attention to irregulars!

partir _____________­­­­­­­­_______

vendre ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________

venir ­____________________

penser ____________________

décider ____________________

aller ____________________

acheter ____________________

établir ____________________

perdre ____________________

être ____________________

II. The Endings

Fill in the appropriate ending to complete the verb in le futur simple.

je vendr____ tu acheter____

on penser____ nous ir____

vous ser____ elles parler____

Le professuer donner____ la réponse après l’examen.

Est-ce que tu pourr____ finir avant ce soir?

Je ne ser____ pas au stade pour le match puisque j’ai des devoirs.

Nous lui dir____ « Bonjour » si nous le voyons.

Ir____-vous au concert ce weekend?

Mes soeurs n’aur____ plus d’argent après ce voyage.

III. Verb Practice

Conjugate the following verbs into all six forms for le futur simple.

Comprendre Chanter

je/j’ ____________________ ____________________

tu ____________________ ____________________

il/elle/on ____________________ ____________________

nous ____________________ ____________________

vous ____________________ ____________________

ils/elles ____________________ ____________________

Rougir Devoir

je/j’ ____________________ ____________________

span>tu ____________________ ____________________

il/elle/on ____________________ ____________________

nous ____________________ ____________________

vous ____________________ ____________________

ils/elles ____________________ ____________________