Future tense

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For other uses, see Future tense (disambiguation).

In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated FUT) is a verb form that marks the event described by
the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future (in an absolute tense
system), or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future (in
a relative tense system).

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Expressions of future tense

• 2 Germanic Languages
o 2.1 English
 2.1.1 Main forms of future implication
 2.1.1.1 Summary of forms
 2.1.2 Imminence versus non-imminence
 2.1.3 Relation among tense, aspect, and modality implications of "will"
and "going to"
 2.1.4 Further aspect/tense constructions implying futurity
 2.1.5 Futurity from a past perspective
o 2.2 German
o 2.3 Icelandic and Old Norse
o 2.4 Norwegian
o 2.5 Danish
o 2.6 Swedish
• 3 Latin and Romance
o 3.1 Future tense with habere
o 3.2 Romanian
• 4 Celtic languages
o 4.1 Scottish Gaelic
o 4.2 Irish
o 4.3 Welsh
• 5 Semitic languages
o 5.1 Hebrew (Biblical)
o 5.2 Arabic
• 6 Mandarin Chinese
• 7 Creoles
o 7.1 Jamaican English Creole
o 7.2 Belizean Creole English
 o 7.3 Gullah
o 7.4 Hawaiian Creole English
o 7.5 Haitian Creole
• 8 External links

• 9 References

[edit] Expressions of future tense

The concept of the future, necessarily uncertain and at varying distances ahead, means that the
speaker may express the future in terms of probability or intent ; the modality of intention is
usually but not always present when a future construction is used.[1]:pp. 105-106 Whether future
expression is realis or irrealis depends not on any objective, ontological notion of future reality,
but rather on the speaker's conviction that the predicted event will at some future moment
constitute reality.[2]:p.20

Languages can employ various strategies to convey future tense meaning. The auxiliary+verb
sequence can eventually become combined into a single word form, leading to reanalysis as a
simple (one-word) future tense. This is in fact the origin of the future tense in Western Romance
languages like Italian (see below). This process can also go in the other direction.[3]

In some languages, there is no special morphological or syntactic indication of future tense, and
future meaning is supplied by the context, for example by the use of temporal adverbs like
"later", "next year", etc. Such adverbs (in particular words meaning "tomorrow" and "then") can
also develop into grammaticalized future tense markers.

A given language can exhibit more than one strategy for expressing future tense. In addition, the
verb forms used for the future tense can also be used to express other types of meaning. For
example, the auxiliary werden "become" is used for both the future tense and the passive voice in
German.

[edit] Germanic Languages

In Germanic languages, including English, the usual expression of the future is using the present
tense, with the futurity expressed using words that imply future action (I go to Berlin tomorrow
or I am going to Berlin tomorrow.). There is no simple future tense as such.

However, the languages of the Germanic family can also express the future by employing an
auxiliary construction that combines certain present tense verbs with the simple infinitive (stem)
of the verb which represents the true action of the sentence. 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.
[edit] English

[edit] Main forms of future implication

The most common auxiliary verbs used to express futurity are will and shall.

Prescriptive grammarians distinguish between these, preferring to express the simple future as
will in the second and third persons and shall in the first person, and preferring to express
obligation or determination in the opposite cases. However, in modern English worldwide, shall
and will are generally used interchangeably,[4] with will being more common. See also shall and
will.

Other periphrastic forms for the future include:

• to be going to + Verb, e.g. John is going to leave tonight.

• to be to + Verb, e.g. John is to leave tonight, which with the zero copula of newspaper
headline style becomes simply to + Verb, e.g. John to leave tonight.

A periphrastic form for the immediate future is

• to be about to + Verb, e.g. John is about to leave (any minute).

A dialectical form in Northern England is:

• mun, derived from Old Norse, which implies obligation.

In all dialects of spoken English, shall and will are commonly elided into 'll (I'll go could be
either "I will go" or "I shall go") so that the differences between the two have been worn down.

English also uses must, should, can, may and might in a similar way:

• Must expresses the highest degree of obligation and commitment (I / you must go) and is
temporally nearest to present time in its expression of futurity ("I must go now.")
• Should (the subjunctive form of shall in this context) implies obligation or commitment
to the action contemplated.
• Can implies the ability to commit the action but does not presuppose obligation or firm
commitment to the action.
• May expresses a relatively low sense of commitment (I may go) and is the most
permissive (You may go); it can also suggest conditionality (I may go [if I have time]).
• Might expresses a very low sense of commitment or obligation (I / you might go if I / you
feel like it).

[edit] Summary of forms

 • I will/shall go
• I'm going to go / I am going to go
• I'm to go / I am to go
• I'm about to go / I am about to go
• I must go
• I should go
• I can go
• I may go
• I might go

To express futurity in the negative, a negative adverb such as not or never is inserted before the
main verb (or the suffix -n't is added to the auxiliary), as in all other auxiliary constructions:

• I will/shall not go.....I won't/shan't go.....Will/shall I not go?.....Won't/shan't I go?

• He's not going to go / He is not going to go.....Is he not going to go?.....Isn't he going to
go?
• He's not to go / He is not to go.....Is he not to go?.....Isn't he to go?
• He's not about to go / He is not about to go.....Is he not about to go?.....Isn't he about to
go?
• I must not go.....I mustn't go.....Must I not go?.....Mustn't I go?
• I should not go.....I shouldn't go.....Should I not go?.....Shouldn't I go?
• I cannot go (cannot is conventional rather than can not).....I can't go.....Can I not
go?.....Can't I go?
• He may never go.....May he never go?
• I might not go.....I mightn't go.....Might I not go?.....Mightn't I go?

In all of these, action within a future range of time is contemplated. However, in all cases, the
sentences are actually voiced in the present tense, since there is no proper future tense in English.
It is the implication of futurity that makes these present tense auxiliary constructions amount to a
compound future quasi-tense.

[edit] Imminence versus non-imminence

The construction am/is/are going to + VERB (and its shortened form am/is/are gonna + VERB)
can either imply or fail to imply imminence of the action,[2] and the intended implication must be
decided from the context. For example, It's going to rain would be interpreted as implying
imminence, whereas I'm going to visit Paris someday would not. Therefore, the forms am/is/are
going to + VERB and will + VERB cannot be conceptually distinguished on the basis of degree
of imminence.

[edit] Relation among tense, aspect, and modality implications of "will" and "going to"

Main article: Tense-aspect-mood

Am/is/are going to + VERB always, and will + VERB usually, imply not just futurity but also
aspect (the way an action or state takes place in time) and/or modality (the attitude of the speaker
toward the action or state).[2][5] The precise interpretation must be based on the context.
Specifically:

• am/is/are going to + VERB sometimes implies intentional modality, as in I'm going to do

that; but sometimes it does not, as in It's going to rain.

• am/is/are going to + VERB always implies prospective aspect, combining the present
focus in the main verb am/is/are going with the futurity of the second verb. Thus, for
example, It's going to rain combines a present viewpoint of the situation with a
description of the future. This feature is analogous to the retrospective aspect of the
English present perfect have/has + VERB + -ed, in which past action is presented from
the viewpoint of the present.

• will + VERB can express aspect alone, without implying futurity: In He will make
mistakes, won't he?, the reference is to a tendency in the past, present, and future and as
such expresses habitual aspect.

• will + VERB can express either of two types of modality alone, again without implying
futurity: In That will be John at the door, there is an implication of present time and
probabilistic mode, while You will do it right now implies obligatory mode.

• will + VERB can express both intentional modality and futurity, as in I will do it.

• will + VERB" can express both conditional modality and futurity, as in[2]:p. 92 Don't sit on
that rock—it'll fall!

• will + VERB can express futurity without modality: The sun will die in a few billion
years.

[edit] Further aspect/tense constructions implying futurity

Additional auxiliary constructions used to express futurity in combination with the aspects
perfect, habitual, and/or continuous are labelled as follows:

Future Continuous: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Present Participle

• I shall/will be going
• You will be singing
• He will be sleeping
• We may be coming
• They may be travelling
• It will be snowing when Nancy arrives
• It will not be raining when Josie leaves
Future Perfect: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle

• I shall/will be gone
• You will have sung
• He will have slept
• We may have come (We may be come can still be used poetically, but it is obsolete in
speech)
• They may have travelled
• It will have snowed
• It will not have rained; It won't have rained

Future Perfect Habitual (or Future Perfect Continuous): Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle
+ Present Participle

• I shall/will have been going

• You will have been singing
• He will have been sleeping
• We may have been coming
• They may have been travelling
• It will have been snowing
• It will not have been raining

[edit] Futurity from a past perspective

The time of perspective of the English future can be shifted from the present to the past by
replacing will with its past tense form would, thus effectively creating a "future of the past"
construction in which the indicated event or situation occurs after the past time of perspective: In
1982, I knew that I would graduate in 1986.