Do you know what the future tense is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on future tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 28, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is the future tense?
According to Walden, there are many different forms of verbs in the English language, from a simple form of the verb to complex:
- Conditional perfect tense
- Perfect passive tense
- Present perfect progressive tense
- Simple present tense
- Past participle tense
- Past perfect progressive tense
- Future perfect tense
- Simple past tense
- Infinitive tense
- Present continuous tense
- Simple conditional tense
- To-infinitive tense
- Present participle tense
- Gerund tense or gerund phrase
- Present perfect tense
- Bare infinitive tense
- Future perfect progressive tense
- Past progressive tense
- Subjunctive tense
- Past progressive/continuous tense
- Conditional progressive tense
- Imperative tense
- Present perfect continuous tense
- Simple future tense
- Future progressive tense
- Present progressive tense
- Conditional perfect progressive tense
- Indicative tense
- Conditional tense
- Past perfect tense
- Present indicative tense
- Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
Today we will explore the future tense. All forms of the future tense show things that you are going to do or actions that will take place in the future. These might specify a specific time in the future or they will say if the action will be ongoing or completed at a certain time, According to Your Dictionary
The future tense also exists in languages like French and Spanish. For Spanish, there are -ar verbs, -er verbs, and -ir verbs. The future tense ads the endings é, ás, á, emos, éis and án to the yo, tú/tu, él/ella/usted, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, and ellos/ellas/ustedes infinitive forms according to En Forex. There are some irregular verbs with a different conjugation like saber, querer, venir, haber, etc. The French future tense adds -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont to the future stem for the je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, and ils/elles forms. There are some irregular verbs like avoir, appeler, and jeter according to Carleton.
Many different languages also contain words that mean future tense. You may notice that some of these translations of future tense look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of future tense is provided by Word Sense.
- Nogai: келеек заман
- Swedish: futurum
- Persian: آینده (âyande)
- Telugu: భవిష్యత్కాలము
- Russian: бу́дущее вре́мя (neut.)
- Hebrew: עתיד
- Italian: futuro
- Kumyk: гележек заман (gelejek zaman)
- Mandarin: 將來時態, 将来时态 (jiānglái shítài), 將來時制, 将来时制 (jiānglái shízhì), 將來時, 将来时 (jiāngláishí)
- Hungarian: jövő idő
- Danish: fremtid (common)
- Slovak: budúci čas (masc.)
- Greek: μέλλοντας (masc.), μέλλων (masc.)
- Kazakh: келер шақ
- Scottish Gaelic: tràth teachdail (masc.)
- Bashkir: киләсәк заман
- Navajo: tʼahígo
- Estonian: tulevik
- Czech: budoucí čas
- Polish: czas przyszły (masc.)
- Kalmyk: ирх цаг
- Tajik: оянда
- Udmurt: вуоно дыр
- Chuvash: пулас вӑхӑт
- Korean: 미래 시제 (未來時制)
- Dutch: toekomende tijd (masc.), onvoltooid toekomstige tijd (masc.)
- Arabic: مُسْتَقْبَل (masc.)
- Tuvan: келир үе
- Tagalog: panghinaharap, magaganap
- Portuguese: futuro
- Turkmen: geljek zaman
- Bulgarian: бъдеще време
- Tatar: киләчәк заман
- Armenian: ապառնի
- Lithuanian: būsimasis laikas
- Finnish: futuuri, tuleva aika
- Spanish: futuro (masc.)
- German: Futur (neut.)
- Crimean Tatar: kelecek zaman
- French: futur (masc.), futur simple (masc.)
- Norman: futur (masc.)
- Southern Altai: келер ӧй (keler öy)
- Latvian: nākotnes laiks (masc.)
- Slovene: prihodnjik (masc.)
- Macedonian: идно време
- Roman: futur (masc.)
- Kyrgyz: келер чак
- Japanese: 未来時制 (みらいじせい, mírai-jisei), 未来形 (みらいけい, míraikei), 未来 (みらい, mírai)
- Azeri: gələcək zaman
- Turkish: gelecek zaman
- Uzbek: kelasi zamon
- Norwegian: futurum (neut.)
- Yakut: кэлэр кэм
- Cyrillic: футур (masc.)
- Latin: futurum
- Ukrainian: майбутній час
- Catalan: futur (masc.)
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- zero
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- prefix
- construed (const., constr.)
- subject
- present tense
- comparative
- past tense
- double object
- intensifier
- apposition
- collective noun
- indirect speech
- imperative (imper.)
- pro-form
- impersonal (impers.)
- absolute (absol.)
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- third-person
- antecedent
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- article
- attributive
- morpheme
- progressive
- genitive
- complementary
- verbal noun
- locative
- agree | agreement
- agent noun
- copular verb | copula
- pronoun (pron.)
- superlative
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- indicative
- postmodify | postmodifier
- clause
- case
- non-finite
- count noun
- subjunctive
- dual
- filler
- neuter
- active
- indirect object
- interjection
- indefinite
- passive infinitive
- subjective
- noun (n.)
- that-clause
- combination
- simple
- main clause
- nominative
- gerund
- person
- possessive adjective
- anticipatory
- direct object
- cataphoric
- conditional
- gender
- optative
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- singular
- vocative
- appositive
- finite
- collocation | collocate
- to-infinitive
- transitive
- dative
- preposition (prep.)
- indirect passive
- feminine
- bare infinitive
- subordinate clause
- element
- concrete
- interrogative
- abstract
- prepositional phrase
- base form
- present participle
- first person
- mood
- indirect question
- verb (v.)
- infinitive
- noun phrase
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- modify | modifier
- adjective
- mass noun
- direct question
- participial adjective
- protasis
- combining form (comb. form)
- phrasal verb
- participle | past participle | present participle
- perfect
- number
- premodify | premodifier
- passive
- adverb (adv.)
- prepositional passive
- causative
- masculine
- adverbial | adverbially
- parasynthetic
- stem
- plural
- head
- possessive
- unmarked genitive
- possessive pronoun
- part of speech
- personal pronoun
- demonstrative
- prepositional object
- determiner
- non-referential
- definite article
- positive
- predicative
- complement
- instrumental
- construction
- intransitive
- common noun
- relative
- special use
- ellipsis | elliptical
- second person
- reflexive
- tense
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- direct speech
- phrase (phr.)
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- declarative
- apodosis and protasis
- compound | compounding
- conjunction (conj.)
- quasi-
- objective
- anaphoric
- proper noun | proper name
- object | direct object | indirect object
- main verb
- similative
- accusative
- cognate object
Overall, the future tense describes actions that will happen in the future.
Sources:
- Glossary of grammatical terms | OED
- Future tense – French and Francophone Studies | Carleton College
- future tense: meaning, translation | Word Sense
- Verb Forms: “-ing,” Infinitives, and Past Participles – Grammar – Academic Guides | Walden University
- Forming the Spanish Future Tense | En Forex
- Future Tense Verbs: 4 Forms and How to Use Them | Your Dictionary
