French Verbs – Future Tense – Regular Verbs

In this lesson we learn the future tense of regular French verbs.

When is the future tense used in French?

This one is straightforward! The future tense is used in French to convey that an action is to take place at a future time and corresponds to English forms such as “I will write,” “she will arrive,” “they will come” and so on.

How is the future tense formed in French?

To create the future tense in French, we add the following endings to the infinitive form of each verb, as follows:

PersonEnding
je-ai
tu–as
il–a
elle–a
nous–ons
vous–ez
ils–ont
elles–ont

What is the French future tense of regular -er verbs, e.g. jouer (‘to play’)?

FrenchEnglish
je joueraiI will play
tu jouerasyou will play
il jouerahe will play
elle jouerashe will play
nous joueronswe will play
vous jouerezyou will play
ils jouerontthey will play
elles jouerontthey will play

What is the French future tense of regular -ir verbs, e.g. finir (‘to finish’)?

FrenchEnglish
je finiraiI will finish
tu finirasyou will finish
il finirahe will finish
elle finirashe will finish
nous finironswe will finish
vous finirezyou will finish
ils finirontthey will finish
elles finirontthey will finish

What is the French future tense of regular -re verbs, e.g. attendre (‘to wait’; ‘to wait for’)?

Note that the ‘e’ is dropped from the end of the infinitive before the endings are applied, as follows:

FrenchEnglish
j’attendraiI will wait
tu attendrasyou will wait
il attendrahe will wait
elle attendrashe will wait
nous attendronswe will wait
vous attendrezyou will wait
ils attendrontthey will wait
elles attendrontthey will wait

Quick Quiz – Written Recall

Can you fill in the blanks to complete the verbs we learned?

Test Yourself

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