Welcome to our lesson on the French future simple tense. The future simple, or 'le futur simple', is used to talk about actions that will happen in the future. It's commonly used for planned future actions, making predictions, and expressing promises. For example, 'Je partirai demain' means 'I will leave tomorrow'. The future simple has consistent endings for all verbs. These endings are: -ai for je, -as for tu, -a for il, elle, or on, -ons for nous, -ez for vous, and -ont for ils or elles. These endings are the same regardless of whether the verb is regular or irregular.
Now, let's look at how to form the future simple for regular verbs. For -ER and -IR verbs, you simply take the full infinitive form and add the future endings. For example, with 'parler' meaning 'to speak', you get 'je parlerai' for 'I will speak', 'tu parleras', 'il parlera', and so on. Similarly, with 'finir' meaning 'to finish', you get 'je finirai', 'tu finiras', and so forth. For -RE verbs, there's a slight difference. You need to remove the final -e from the infinitive before adding the future endings. For example, with 'vendre' meaning 'to sell', you remove the final -e to get 'vendr-' as your stem. Then you add the endings to get 'je vendrai', 'tu vendras', 'il vendra', and so on. Notice that for all regular verbs, the stem stays the same for all persons - only the endings change.
Now let's look at irregular verbs in the future simple. Many common French verbs have irregular stems in the future tense. The good news is that even though the stems are irregular, they still use the same future endings we've already learned. Some of the most common irregular verbs include: être (to be) which uses the stem 'ser-', avoir (to have) which uses 'aur-', aller (to go) which uses 'ir-', faire (to do or make) which uses 'fer-', and venir (to come) which uses 'viendr-'. Other important irregular verbs include voir (to see) with the stem 'verr-', pouvoir (can) with 'pourr-', vouloir (to want) with 'voudr-', savoir (to know) with 'saur-', and devoir (must) with 'devr-'. Let's look at a full example with the verb être. We use the irregular stem 'ser-' plus the future endings to get: je serai, tu seras, il sera, nous serons, vous serez, ils seront. Remember, even though these stems are irregular, the endings remain consistent. Unfortunately, there's no easy rule for these irregular stems - they simply need to be memorized.
Now let's see how the future simple is used in different contexts. There are five main situations where you'll commonly use this tense. First, when making plans: 'Nous partirons à 8h demain' - 'We will leave at 8 tomorrow.' Second, for predictions: 'Il fera beau ce weekend' - 'It will be nice this weekend.' Third, when making promises: 'Je t'appellerai ce soir' - 'I will call you tonight.' Fourth, for scheduled events: 'Le train arrivera à 15h' - 'The train will arrive at 3pm.' And fifth, in hypothetical future situations: 'Si tu viens, nous irons au cinéma' - 'If you come, we will go to the cinema.' Notice how in each example, the future simple conveys an action that will happen in the future, but the specific context gives additional meaning to the statement. The future simple is very versatile and is one of the most commonly used future tenses in French.
Let's summarize what we've learned about the French future simple tense. First, the future simple is used to talk about actions that will happen in the future. For regular verbs, the formation rule depends on the verb type: -ER and -IR verbs use the full infinitive plus the future endings, while -RE verbs drop the final -e before adding the endings. Many common verbs have irregular stems in the future tense, but they all use the same set of endings: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, and -ont. The future simple is commonly used in several contexts: making plans, expressing predictions, making promises, describing scheduled events, and discussing hypothetical future situations. With this knowledge, you can now confidently talk about future actions in French. Remember to practice with both regular and irregular verbs to become comfortable with this important tense.