Ingrammar, afuture tense (abbreviatedFUT) is averb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a futuretense form is theFrenchachètera, meaning "will buy", derived from the verbacheter ("to buy"). The "future" expressed by the future tense usually means the future relative to the moment of speaking, although in contexts whererelative tense is used it may mean the future relative to some other point in time under consideration.
English does not have aninflectional future tense, though it has a variety of grammatical and lexical means for expressing future-related meanings. These includemodal auxiliaries such aswill andshall as well as the futuratepresent tense.[1]
The nature of thefuture, necessarily uncertain and at varying distances ahead, means that the speaker may refer to future events with themodality either of probability (what the speaker expects to happen) or intent (what the speaker plans to make happen).[2] Whether future expression isrealis orirrealis depends not so much on an objectiveontological notion of future reality, but rather on the degree of the speaker's conviction that the event will in fact come about.[3]: p.20
In many languages there is no grammatical (morphological orsyntactic) indication of future tense. Future meaning is supplied by the context, with the use of temporal adverbs such as "later", "next year", etc. Such adverbs (in particular words meaning "tomorrow" and "then") sometimes develop into grammaticalized future tense markers. (A tense used to refer specifically to occurrences taking place on the following day is called acrastinal tense.)
In other languages, mostly of European origin, specific markers indicate futurity. These structures constitute afuture tense. In many cases, anauxiliary verb is used, as in English, where futurity is often indicated by themodal auxiliarywill (orshall). However, some languages combine such an auxiliary with the main verb to produce a simple (one-word, morphological) future tense. This is the origin of the future tense in WesternRomance languages such as French and Italian (seebelow).
A given language may have more than one way to express futurity. English, for example, often refers to future events usingpresent tense forms or other structures such as thegoing-to future, besides the canonical form withwill/shall. In addition, the verb forms used for the future tense can also be used to express other types of meaning; English again provides examples of this (seeEnglish modal verbs for the various meanings that bothwill andshall can have besides simply expressing futurity).
InGermanic languages, includingEnglish, a common expression of the future is using thepresent tense, with the futurity expressed using words that imply future action (I go to Berlintomorrow orI am going to Berlintomorrow). There is no simple (morphological) future tense as such. However, the future can also be expressed by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain present tenseauxiliary verbs with the simple infinitive (stem) of the main verb. These auxiliary forms vary between the languages. Other, generally more informal, expressions of futurity use an auxiliary with the compound infinitive of the main verb (as with the Englishis going to ...).
English grammar provides a number of ways to indicate the future nature of an occurrence. Some argue that English, like most Germanic languages, does not have a future tense[4]—that is, a grammatical form that always indicates futurity—nor does it have a mandatory form for the expression of futurity. However, through gradual development from its Germanic roots, English became what is now considered a strongly future-tense-marking language.[5] Currently, there are several generally accepted ways to indicate futurity in English, and some of them—particularly those that usewill orshall as the most universal and widely used—are frequently described as future tense while some may argue these verbs serve both as present modal verbs and future tense markers.[4]
Thewill/shall future consists of themodal verbwill orshall together with the bareinfinitive of the main verb, as in "He will win" or "I shall win". (Prescriptive grammarians preferwill in the second and third persons andshall in the first person, reversing the forms to express obligation or determination, but in practiceshall andwill are generally used interchangeably,[6] withwill being more common. For details seeshall andwill.) The meaning of this construction is close to that expressed by the future tense in other languages. However the same construction withwill orshall can have other meanings that do not indicate futurity, or else indicate somemodality in addition to futurity (as in "He will make rude remarks," in the sense of "He is wont to make rude remarks," meaning he has a habit of doing so; or, "You shall stop making rude remarks," which is giving an order). For details of these meanings, see the sections onwill andshall in the article on English modal verbs.
The form of thewill/shall future described above is frequently called thesimple future (orfuture simple). Other constructions provide additional auxiliaries that express particularaspects: thefuture progressive (orfuture continuous) as in "He will be working"; thefuture perfect as in "They will have finished"; and thefuture perfect progressive as in "You will have been practising." For detail on these, see the relevant sections ofUses of English verb forms. (For more on expressions of relative tense, such as the future perfect, see also the sectionabove.)
Several other English constructions commonly refer to the future:
Questions and negatives are formed from all of the above constructions in the regular manner: seeQuestions andNegation in the English grammar article. The auxiliarieswill andshall form thecontracted negationswon't andshan't (they can also sometimes be contracted when not negated, to 'll, such as inI'll find it).
The various ways of expressing the future carry different meanings, implying not just futurity but alsoaspect (the way an action or state takes place in time) and/ormodality (the attitude of the speaker toward the action or state).[3][7] The precise interpretation must be based on the context. In particular there is sometimes a distinction in usage between thewill/shall future and thegoing-to future (although in some contexts they are interchangeable). For more information see thegoing-to future article.
Dutch can express the future in three ways:[8]
Zullen + infinitive is more similar toshall than towill. It is used to:[9]
Englishwill and Dutchwil, although cognates, have over the centuries shifted in meaning, such thatwill is almost identical toshall, whereas Dutchwil meanswant, as inIk wil het doen (I want to do it).
Gaan + infinitive can be compared with the English "going to" . It is used:
Swedish[2]: pp.107–108 skall strongly implies intention, but with an adverb such asnog "probably" it can avoid the implication of intentionality:Det här skall nog gå bra "This will probably go well". However, the past tense ofskall,skulle, can be used without such an adverb to express predictions in the past:Pelle sa, att det skulle bli varmt på eftermiddagen "Pelle said that it would be warm in the afternoon."
Pure future, regardless of intention, is usually expressed withkommer att (literally: "comes to"):Det här kommer att gå bra "This will go well",Du kommer att överleva det här "You will survive this".
Generally, future tense is sparsely used in spoken Swedish, with the verb instead being put in present tense and accompanied by a distinct time specification:Jag åker till Spanien på fredag "I travel to Spain on Friday"Då ses vi imorgon. "Then we meet tomorrow"
The future tense forms inLatin varied by conjugation. Here is a sample of the future tense for the first conjugation verbamare, "to love".
| amabo | I shall love |
| amabis | you (singular) will love |
| amabit | he, she, it will love |
| amabimus | we shall love |
| amabitis | you (plural) will love |
| amabunt | they will love |
SeeLatin conjugation for further details. Sound changes inVulgar Latin made future forms difficult to distinguish from other verb forms (e.g.,amabit "he will love" vs.amavit "he loved"), and the Latin simple future forms were gradually replaced byperiphrastic structures involving the infinitive and anauxiliary verb, such asdebere,venire,velle, or especiallyhabere. All of the modernRomance languages havegrammaticalized one of these periphrastic constructions for expressing the future tense; none of them has preserved the original Latin future, with the exception ofOld French preserving the original Latin future forms ofestre "to be":jo (i)er,tu (i)ers,il (i)ert,nos (i)ermes,vos *(i)ertes, andil (i)erent, all of them were derived fromerō, irregular future form ofesse "to be", in addition to future forms inser- (<sedēre "to sit") orestr-.
While Classical Latin used a set of suffixes to the main verb for the future tense, laterVulgar Latin adopted the use ofhabere ("to have") with the infinitive, as for example:
petant aut non petant venire habet[10] ("whether they ask or do not ask, it will come")
From this construction, the major Western Romance languages have simple future tense forms that derive from the infinitive followed by a conjugated form of the verb "to have" (Latinhabere). As the auxiliary verb lost its modal force (from a verb expressing obligation, desire, or intention, to a simple marker of tense), it also lost syntactic autonomy (becoming anenclitic) and phonological substance (e.g., Latin first singularhabeo >ayyo >Old Frenchai, Modern French[e]).
Thus the sequence of Latin verbsamare habeo ("I have to love") gave rise to Frenchaimerai, Spanishamaré, etc. "I will love".[11][12]
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation ofavoir | Future tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | aimer | ai | aimerai |
| tu | as | aimeras | |
| il/elle/on | a | aimera | |
| nous | avons | aimerons | |
| vous | avez | aimerez | |
| ils/elles | ont | aimeront |
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation ofaver | Future tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| ieu | aimar | ai | aimarai |
| tu | as | aimaràs | |
| el/ela/òm | a | aimarà | |
| nos | avèm | aimarem | |
| vos | avètz | aimaretz | |
| eles/elas | an | aimaràn |
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation ofhaver | Future tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | comer | hei | comerei |
| tu | hás | comerás | |
| ele/ela/você | há | comerá | |
| nós | hemos | comeremos | |
| vós | heis | comereis | |
| eles/elas/vocês | hão | comerão |
| Personal pronoun | Root verb | Conjugation ofhaber | Future tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | comprar | he | compraré |
| tú | has | comprarás | |
| él/ella/usted | ha | comprará | |
| nosotros | hemos/habemos | compraremos | |
| vosotros | habéis | compraréis | |
| ellos/ellas/ustedes | han | comprarán |
Phonetic changes also affected the infinitive in the evolution of this form, so that in the modern languages the future stem is not always identical to the infinitive. Consider the following Spanish examples:
InHindi, verbs can be conjugated for three grammatical aspects (habitual,perfective, andprogressive) and five grammatical moods (indicative,presumptive,subjunctive,contrafactual, andimperative). Out of the three aspects, the habitual mood of Hindi cannot be conjugated into the future tense. The indicative future is constructed from the subjunctive future forms. Imperatives in Hindi can also be put into future tense.[13]
There are two future subjunctive moods in modernHindi, first the regular subjunctive and the second, the perfective subjunctive which superficially has the same form as the perfective aspect forms of verbs but still expresses future events, it is used withif clauses andrelative clauses. In a semantic analysis, this use of the perfective aspect marker would not be considered perfective, since it is more closely related to subjunctive usage. Only the superficial form is identical to that of the perfective.[14] This perfective subjunctive cannot be used as a coupla for aspectual participles.
The future indicative forms are constructed using the future subjunctive forms of verbs by adding the future suffix गा (-gā) which declines for number and gender of the grammatical person. The table below shows the future subjunctive and indicative forms of the verb करनाkarnā (to do).
| gender | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| ♂ | -गा -gā -गा -gā | -गे -gē -गे -gē |
| ♀ | -गी -गी -gī | |
| personal pronouns | future subjunctive | future indicative | subjunctive perfective | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| person | plurality | formality | pronoun | ♂ | ♀ | ♂ | ♀ | |
| 1st | singular | — | मैं ma͠i मैं ma͠i | करूँ karū̃ करूँ karū̃ | करूँगा karū̃gā करूँगा karū̃gā | करूँगी karū̃gī करूँगी karū̃gī | किया kiyā किया kiyā | की kī की kī |
| plural[a] | — | हम ham हम ham | करें karē̃ करें karē̃ | करेंगे karē̃gē करेंगे karē̃gē | करेंगी karē̃gī करेंगी karē̃gī | किये kiyē किये kiyē | कीं kī̃ कीं kī̃ | |
| 2nd | singular | intimate[b] | तू tū तू tū | करे karē करे karē | करेगा karēgā करेगा karēgā | करेगी karēgī करेगी karēgī | किया kiyā किया kiyā | की kī की kī |
| plural[c] | familiar | तुम tum तुम tum | करो karo करो karo | करोगे karogē करोगे karogē | करोगी karogī करोगी karogī | किये kiyē किये kiyē | की kī की kī | |
| formal[b] | आप āp आप āp | करें karē̃ करें karē̃ | करेंगे karē̃gē करेंगे karē̃gē | करेंगी karē̃gī करेंगी karē̃gī | किये kiyē किये kiyē | कीं kī̃ कीं kī̃ | ||
| translation(only 2nd person) | (that) you do. | you will do. | (if) you do. | |||||
| demonstrative pronouns[d] | future subjunctive | future indicative | subjunctive perfective | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plurality | usage | proximal | distal | ♂ | ♀ | ♂ | ♀ | |
| singular | literary | यह yah यह yah | वह vah वह vah | करे karē करे karē | करेगा karēgā करेगा karēgā | करेगी karēgī करेगी karēgī | किया kiyā किया kiyā | की kī की kī |
| colloquial | ये ye ये ye | वो vo वो vo | ||||||
| singular | ||||||||
| plural | करें karē̃ करें karē̃ | करेंगे karē̃gē करेंगे karē̃gē | करेंगी karē̃gī करेंगी karē̃gī | किये kiyē किये kiyē | कीं kī̃ कीं kī̃ | |||
| plural | literary | ये ye ये ye | वे ve वे ve | |||||
| translation(only 3rd person fem.) | (that) she do. | she will do. | (if) she does. | |||||
The prospective future is constructed using the prospective future participle which is constructed from the oblique infinitive by adding the suffix वाला (-vālā) which also declines for the number and the gender of the pronoun. The participle is always followed by the auxiliary verb होना (honā) in its conjugated forms. The copula होना (honā) can be put into four grammatical moods:indicative,presumptive,subjunctive, andcontrafactual.[15] The table below shows the indicative mood forms of the prospective future for the verb करनाkarnā (to do).
| gender | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| ♂ | -नेवला -nēvālā -नेवला -nēvālā | -नेवाले -nēvālē -नेवाले -nēvālē |
| ♀ | -नेवाली -nēvālī -नेवाली -nēvālī | |
| personal pronouns | indicative mood | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present | imperfect past | future | |||||||
| person | plurality | formality | pronoun | ♂ | ♀ | ♂ | ♀ | ♂ | ♀ |
| 1st | singular | — | मैं ma͠i मैं ma͠i | करनेवाला karnēvālā हूँ hū̃ करनेवाला हूँ karnēvālā hū̃ | करनेवाली karnēvālī हूँ hū̃ करनेवाली हूँ karnēvālī hū̃ | करनेवाला karnēvālā था thā करनेवाला था karnēvālā thā | करनेवाली karnēvālī थी thī करनेवाली थी karnēvālī thī | करनेवाला karnēvālā रहूँगा rahū̃gā करनेवाला रहूँगा karnēvālā rahū̃gā | करनेवाली karnēvālī रहूँगी rahū̃gī करनेवाली रहूँगी karnēvālī rahū̃gī |
| plural | — | हम ham हम ham | करनेवाले karnēvālē हैं ha͠i करनेवाले हैं karnēvālē ha͠i | करनेवाली karnēvālī हैं ha͠i करनेवाली हैं karnēvālī ha͠i | करनेवाले karnēvālē थे thē करनेवाले थे karnēvālē thē | करनेवाली karnēvālī थीं thī̃ करनेवाली थीं karnēvālī thī̃ | करनेवाले karnēvālē रहेंगे rahẽge करनेवाले रहेंगे karnēvālē rahẽge | करनेवाली karnevālī रहेंगी rahẽgī करनेवाली रहेंगी karnevālī rahẽgī | |
| 2nd | singular | intimate | तू tū तू tū | करनेवाला karnēvālā है hai करनेवाला है karnēvālā hai | करनेवाली karnēvālī है hai करनेवाली है karnēvālī hai | करनेवाला karnēvālā था thā करनेवाला था karnēvālā thā | करनेवाली karēvālī थी thī करनेवाली थी karēvālī thī | करनेवाला karnēvālā रहेगा rahegā करनेवाला रहेगा karnēvālā rahegā | करनेवाली karnēvālī रहेगी rahegī करनेवाली रहेगी karnēvālī rahegī |
| plural | familiar | तुम tum तुम tum | करनेवाले karnēvālē हो ho करनेवाले हो karnēvālē ho | करनेवाली karnēvālī हो ho करनेवाली हो karnēvālī ho | करनेवाले karnēvālē थे thē करनेवाले थे karnēvālē thē | करनेवाली karnēvālī थी thī करनेवाली थी karnēvālī thī | करनेवाले karnēvālē रहोगे rahogē करनेवाले रहोगे karnēvālē rahogē | करनेवाली karnēvālī रहोगी rahogī करनेवाली रहोगी karnēvālī rahogī | |
| formal | आप āp आप āp | करनेवाले karnēvālē हैं ha͠i करनेवाले हैं karnēvālē ha͠i | करनेवाली karnēvālī हैं ha͠i करनेवाली हैं karnēvālī ha͠i | करनेवाले karnēvālē थे thē करनेवाले थे karnēvālē thē | करनेवाली karnēvālī थीं thī̃ करनेवाली थीं karnēvālī thī̃ | करनेवाले karnēvālē रहेंगे rahẽge करनेवाले रहेंगे karnēvālē rahẽge | करनेवाली karnevālī रहेंगी rahẽgī करनेवाली रहेंगी karnevālī rahẽgī | ||
| translation | ...is going to do. | ...was going to do. | ...will be going to do. | ||||||
Imperatives inHindi can be conjugated into two tenses, present and future tense. The conjugations are mentioned in the table below for the verb करनाkarnā (to do). Hindi also has imperatives forms which are constructed form the subjunctive form of the verbs for the formal 2nd person pronoun आप (āp), and also third person pronouns to give indirect commands.[16][17]
| pronouns | imperative mood | subjunctive mood | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present | future | present | future | |||
| 2nd | intimate | तू tū तू tū | कर kar कर kar | करियो kariyo करियो kariyo | — | |
| familiar | तुम tum तुम tum | करो karo करो karo | करना karnā करना karnā | — | ||
| formal | आप āp आप āp | करिये kariyē करिये kariyē | करियेगा kariyēgā करियेगा kariyēgā | करें karẽ करें karẽ | ||
| translation | do! | do (later)! | (please) do! | |||
Biblical Hebrew has a distinction between past and future tenses which is similar in form to those used in other Semitic languages such asArabic andAramaic.Gesenius refers to the past and future verb forms as Perfect and Imperfect,[18] respectively, separating completed action from uncompleted action. However, the usage of verbs in these forms does not always have the same temporal meaning as in Indo-European languages, mainly due to the common use of a construct of inverting the time reference with a prefix "Waw consecutive" (ו' ההיפוך). With this construct, the Perfect-consecutive refers to the future[19] and the Imperfect-consecutive refers to the past.
Usage of the imperfect to discuss future events is somewhat uncommon in Biblical Hebrew, as the Bible mainly discusses past events. It can be found in quoted speech, such as in the words ofMoses (imperfect verbs stressed):
1וַיַּעַן מֹשֶׁה, וַיֹּאמֶר, וְהֵן לֹא-יַאֲמִינוּ לִי, וְלֹאיִשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי: כִּייֹאמְרוּ, לֹא-נִרְאָה אֵלֶיךָ יְהֹוָה
1And Moses answered and said, But, behold, theywill not believe me, norhearken unto my voice: for theywill say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
— Exodus 4:1[20]
The Perfect-consecutive is commonly found in prophetic text, describing an unspecified future, as in theBook of Isaiah:
2וְהָיָה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, נָכוֹן יִהְיֶה הַר בֵּית-יְהוָה בְּרֹאשׁ הֶהָרִים, וְנִשָּׂא, מִגְּבָעוֹת;וְנָהֲרוּ אֵלָיו, כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם.
2 In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s templewill be establishedas the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nationswill stream to it.
— Isaiah 2:2[21]
Modern Hebrew always employs the imperfect as the future tense (and the perfect as the past tense). The usage of "Waw consecutive" has practically disappeared, except for quotes from the Bible and Poetic language.
To form future tense inArabic the prefix (سـ) "sa" is added to the present tense verb, or (سوف) "sawfa".[22]
For example, consider the sentence:
To express the future we have two ways:
InClassical Arabic the latter indicates an individual future action that usually takes place further in the future than the first mentioned form, which is usually used with verbs that relate to other actions, and mostly referring to rather near future actions.However, inModern Standard Arabic (MSA) the distinction is minimal.
Moreover, the indication of the future tense indialectal Arabic is quite varied from one dialect to the next.Generally speaking, the words meaning "want to" (بدي / أريد أن), "go to" (أروح), "intend to"(ناوي /نويت), and many others are used daily to indicate future actions.[23]InMoroccan Arabic, the word "Ghad" (غاد) is used to indicate future, which literally means "there" (or there is to happen), that is in some way similar to the English formation "there I go.."
Mandarin Chinese has no grammatical tense, instead indicating time of action from the context or using adverbs. However, the auxiliary verb 會 /会 -huì / ㄏㄨㄟˋ, a modal meaning "can", "know how", can alternatively indicate futurity.[24]: p.265, [25]: p.183 For lexical futurity, the word要yào, which can serve as a verb meaning "to want", can also serve as an adverb meaning "immediately":[25]: p. 175 For example,我要洗澡wǒ yào xǐzǎo can mean either "I want to bathe" or "I am about to bathe". 即jí、將jiāng serve a similar function as tense-marking adverbs.[how?]
Creoles are languages with a vocabulary heavily based on asuperstrate language but a grammar based onsubstrate languages and/or universal language tendencies. Some Creoles model a future tense/irrealis mood marker on "go" from the superstrate (analogous to English "am going to").[26]: p. 188 In many creoles the future can be indicated with the progressive aspect, analogous to the English "I'm seeing him tomorrow."[26]: p. 190 In general creoles tend to put less emphasis on marking tense than on marking aspect. When any of tense, aspect, and modality are specified, they are typically indicated with invariant pre-verbal markers in the sequence anterior relative tense (prior to the time focused on), irrealis mode (conditional or future), imperfective aspect.[26]: pp. 176–9, p. 191
The future marker inJamaican Creole is /de go/[26]: pp. 93–95 or /a go/: /de go hapm/ "is going to happen", /mi a go ɹon/ "I am going to run".
InBelizean Creole, the future tense is indicated by a mandatory invariant pre-verbal particle /(w)a(n)/, /gwein/, or /gouɲ/.
InGullah the future is indicated by the pre-verbal markergwine:Uh gwine he'p dem "I'm going to help them".
InHawaiian Creole, the pre-verbal future marker isgon:[27]Ai gon bai wan pikap "I'm going to buy a pickup".
Haitian Creole, based on a French superstrate, interchangeably usespral orva (from French 3rd person singularva "goes") pre-verbally to indicate the future:[28]Mwen va fini lit. "I go finish";Li pral vini jodi a "He will come today".
