The French future tense comes in two forms. The futur proche, je vais partir, is built with aller and is what people use most when they speak. The futur simple, je partirai, is a single word with its own endings.

This guide shows how to form both, the irregular stems worth learning by heart, and which one to choose in speech and in writing.

1. The two forms of the French future tense

Ce soir, je vais regarder un film. Demain, je regarderai le match. Both sentences talk about the future, and in many cases either form would be correct.

The futur proche is the everyday, spoken choice, and it suggests something planned or about to happen. The futur simple is more frequent in writing, in promises and predictions, and for events further away.

2. Futur proche: aller plus infinitive

Conjugate aller in the present and add the infinitive of the main verb: je vais manger, tu vas manger, il va manger, nous allons manger, vous allez manger, ils vont manger.

Ne and pas go around aller, and an object pronoun goes before the infinitive: je ne vais pas manger, je vais le faire, je ne vais pas le faire. Je vais aller au cinéma is perfectly correct, even if it sounds odd in English.

3. Futur simple endings: the infinitive plus -ai, -as, -a

For most verbs, take the infinitive and add the endings. Verbs in -re drop their final e first: prendre becomes prendr-.

Subject	Ending	parler	finir	prendre
je	-ai	parlerai	finirai	prendrai
tu	-as	parleras	finiras	prendras
il, elle, on	-a	parlera	finira	prendra
nous	-ons	parlerons	finirons	prendrons
vous	-ez	parlerez	finirez	prendrez
ils, elles	-ont	parleront	finiront	prendront

The endings are the present tense of avoir, without the av- of avons and avez. Like the imparfait, the futur simple uses the same endings for every verb: only the stem changes.

4. Irregular stems in the futur simple

A short list of common verbs do not use their infinitive as the stem. The endings stay regular, and every stem still ends in r:

Verb	Stem	Je form
être	ser-	je serai
avoir	aur-	j'aurai
aller	ir-	j'irai
faire	fer-	je ferai
venir	viendr-	je viendrai
voir	verr-	je verrai

Learn these too: pouvoir, je pourrai; vouloir, je voudrai; devoir, je devrai; savoir, je saurai; envoyer, j'enverrai; and il faut, il faudra. Pourrai, verrai and enverrai take a double r.

5. Spelling changes: acheter, appeler, payer

Some -er verbs change their stem in the futur simple, as they do in the present with je:

• acheter takes a grave accent: j'achèterai, nous achèterons;
• appeler and jeter double their consonant: j'appellerai, je jetterai;
• verbs in -oyer and -uyer change y to i: j'emploierai, j'essuierai;
• payer and essayer accept both: je paierai or je payerai.

The guide to French double consonants covers appeler, jeter and the verbs that follow them.

6. Futur simple vs futur proche: which one to use

In conversation, the futur proche is the safe default: on va voir, je vais t'appeler. Use the futur simple when you write, for a promise or a prediction, and for something far off or uncertain: un jour, j'habiterai à la mer.

Some contexts lean clearly one way. A weather forecast says il pleuvra demain; a friend at the window says il va pleuvoir. Instructions and formal letters use the futur simple: vous recevrez une confirmation par e-mail.

7. The future after quand and si

Two small words trip up English speakers. After quand, lorsque or dès que, French uses the future when the action is in the future, where English uses the present: Quand tu arriveras, on mangera. When you arrive, we'll eat.

After si, it is the reverse: never the future, always the present. S'il fait beau demain, nous irons à la plage. Do not mix the future with the conditional, which looks almost the same: je parlerai is a future, je parlerais a conditional. The page on future or conditional shows how to tell them apart.

8. Common mistakes with the French future

• Writing je pourai or je verai with one r: the irregular stems pourr- and verr- have two.
• Writing je mangerais for a future: the ending -ais belongs to the conditional.
• Using the present after quand for a future action: quand je serai à Paris, not quand je suis à Paris.
• Putting the future after si: si tu viens, not si tu viendras.

In speech, je parlerai and je parlerais sound almost the same for many speakers. In an Apostrophe· dictation, the word-by-word correction shows which ending you wrote and why the sentence needs the other one.

The short version

Say je vais partir for what is planned or close, write je partirai for promises, predictions and anything formal. The futur simple is the infinitive plus -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont, with a short list of irregular stems that all end in r.

Frequently asked questions

What are the French future endings?

The futur simple endings are -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez and -ont, added to the infinitive. Verbs in -re drop their final e first: je prendrai.

What is the difference between futur simple and futur proche?

The futur proche, je vais partir, is the spoken default for planned or near events. The futur simple, je partirai, is more common in writing, promises and predictions.

Which French verbs are irregular in the future?

The most common are être (ser-), avoir (aur-), aller (ir-), faire (fer-), venir (viendr-), voir (verr-), pouvoir (pourr-), vouloir (voudr-), devoir (devr-) and savoir (saur-). Their endings stay regular.

Do you use the future after quand in French?

Yes, when the action is in the future: quand tu arriveras, on mangera. English uses the present there, French does not.

How do you make the futur proche negative?

Put ne and pas around the conjugated form of aller: je ne vais pas partir, nous n'allons pas le faire.

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