Future tenseIn grammar, a future tense (abbreviated FUT) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not havinghappened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French aimera, meaning "will love",derived from the verb aimer ("love"). English does not have a future tense formed by verb inflection in this way, although it has anumber of ways to express the future, particularly the construction with the auxiliary verb will or shall or is/am/are going to andgrammarians differ in whether they describe such constructions as representing a future tense in English.

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.

Expressions

Expressions of relative tense

Germanic languagesEnglishGermanDutchIcelandic and Old NorseNorwegianDanishSwedish

Latin and RomanceFuture tense with habereRomanianPortugueseSardinian

Slavic languagesSlovakPolish

Celtic languagesScottish GaelicIrishWelsh

Semitic languagesHebrewArabic

Mandarin Chinese

CreolesJamaican English CreoleBelizean Creole EnglishGullahHawaiian Creole EnglishHaitian Creole

References

External links

Contents

The nature of the future, necessarily uncertain and at varying distances ahead, means that the speaker may refer to future events withthe modality either of probability (what the speaker expects to happen) or intent (what the speaker plans to make happen).[1] Whetherfuture expression is realis or irrealis depends not so much on an objective ontological notion of future reality, but rather on the degreeof the speaker's conviction that the event will in fact come about.[2]:p.20

In many languages there is no grammatical (morphological or syntactic) indication of future tense. Future meaning is supplied by thecontext, 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 placeon the following day is called a crastinal tense.)

In other languages, mostly of European origin, specific markers indicate futurity. These structures constitute a future tense. In manycases, an auxiliary verb is used, as in English, where futurity is often indicated by the modal auxiliary will (or shall). However, somelanguages combine such an auxiliary with the main verb to produce a simple (one-word, morphological) future tense. This is theorigin of the future tense in Western Romance languages such as French and Italian (see below).

A given language may have more than one way to express futurity. English, for example, often refers to future events using presenttense forms or other structures such as the going-to future, besides the canonical form with will/shall. In addition, the verb forms usedfor the future tense can also be used to express other types of meaning; English again provides examples of this (see English modalverbs for the various meanings that both will and shall can have besides simply expressing futurity).

It is sometimes possible to mark the time of an occurrence as being in the past or future not relative to the present moment (themoment of speaking), but relative to a time of reference, which can itself be in the past or future (or in some hypothetical reality)relative to the present moment. (See relative tense.) Thus an occurrence may be marked as taking place in the "past of the future","future of the past", etc. (For the "past of the past", see pluperfect.)

The past of the future, marking an occurrence expected to take place before some future reference time, is typically marked by afuture perfect form (in languages that have such a form), as in the English "I shall have finished by tomorrow afternoon."

The "future of the past" may be expressed in various ways in English. It is possible to use would in its capacity as the past tense of thefuture marker will (see English modal verbs and future-in-the-past); for example: "The match started at midday but would not enduntil the evening." It is also possible to use the past tense of other expressions that express future reference, as in "I was going towait"; "I was to wait"; "I was about to wait." Such expressions can also be put into other tenses and moods (and non-finite forms), toachieve future reference in hypothetical and future situations, e.g., "I would be going to take part if ..."; "I shall be about to leave."More examples can be found in the section Expressions of relative future in the article on the going-to future.

In Germanic languages, including English, a common expression of the future is using the present tense, with the futurity expressedusing words that imply future action (I go to Berlin tomorrow or I am going to Berlin tomorrow). There is no simple (morphological)future tense as such. However, the future can also be expressed by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain presenttense auxiliary 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 ...).

Expressions

Expressions of relative tense

Germanic languages

English

English grammar provides a number of ways to indicate the future nature of an occurrence. Some argue that English does not have afuture tense—that is, a grammatical form that always indicates futurity—nor does it have a mandatory form for the expression offuturity. However, there are several generally accepted ways to indicate futurity in English, and some of them—particularly those thatuse will or shall—are frequently described as future tense.

The will/shall future consists of the modal verb will or shall together with the bare infinitive of the main verb, as in "He will wineasily" or "I shall do it when time permits". (Prescriptive grammarians prefer will in the second and third persons and shall in the firstperson, reversing the forms to express obligation or determination, but in practice shall and will are generally used interchangeably,[3]

with will being more common. For details see shall and will.) The meaning of this construction is close to that expressed by the futuretense in other languages. However the same construction with will or shall can have other meanings that do not indicate futurity, orelse indicate some modality in addition to futurity (as in "He will make rude remarks", meaning he has a habit of doing so, or, "Youshall act on my behalf", giving an order). For details of these meanings, see the sections on will and shall in the article on Englishmodal verbs.

The form of the will/shall future described above is frequently called the simple future (or future simple). Other constructions provideadditional auxiliaries that express particular aspects: the future progressive (or future continuous) as in "He will be working"; thefuture perfect as in "They will have finished"; and the future perfect progressive as in "You will have been practising." For detail onthese, see the relevant sections of Uses of English verb forms. (For more on expressions of relative tense, such as the future perfect,see also the section above.)

Several other English constructions commonly refer to the future:

Present tense forms, as in "The train leaves at 5," or, "My cousins arrive tomorrow." Since these grammatical formsare used more canonically to refer to present situations, they are not generally described as future tense; insentences like those just given they may be described as "present tense with future meaning". Use of the presenttense (rather than forms with will) is mandatory in some subordinate clauses referring to the future, such as "If I feelbetter next week, ..." and "As soon as they arrive, ...". For more details see the sections on the simple present,present progressive and dependent clauses in the article on English verb forms.The going-to future, e.g., "John is going to leave tonight."The construction with a finite form of the copula verb be together with the to-infinitive, e.g., "John is to leave tonight".(With the zero copula of newspaper headline style, this becomes simply "John to leave tonight".) For details see amto.The construction with to be about to, e.g., "John is about to leave", referring to the expected immediate future. (Anumber of lexical expressions with similar meaning also exist, such as to be on the point of (doing something).)Use of modal verbs with future meaning, to combine the expression of future time with certain modality: "I must dothis" (also mun in Northern English dialect); "We should help him"; "I can get out of here"; "We may win"; "Youmight succeed". The same modal verbs are also often used with present rather than future reference. For details oftheir meanings and usage, see English modal verbs.

Questions and negatives are formed from all of the above constructions in the regular manner: see Questions and Negation in theEnglish grammar article. The auxiliaries will and shall form the contracted negations won't and shan't (they can also sometimes becontracted when not negated, to 'll).

The various ways of expressing the future carry different meanings, implying not just futurity but also aspect (the way an action orstate takes place in time) and/or modality (the attitude of the speaker toward the action or state).[2][4] The precise interpretation mustbe based on the context. In particular there is sometimes a distinction in usage between the will/shall future and the going-to future(although in some contexts they are interchangeable). For more information see the going-to future article.

The use of the present tense in future meaning is much more common in German than it is in English. Especially in colloquialGerman, but also in the written standard language, future tenses are quite rarely used if the future meaning is already evident throughcontext or a temporal adverb or clause. For example:

In zehn Jahren bin ich Millionär.

German

In ten years, I shall be a millionaire.Literally: In ten years am I millionaire.

German uses an auxiliary for the future: werden (which can also mean "to become.") The main verb after werden is a simpleinfinitive. The infinitive main verb is placed at the end of the sentence or clause. For example:

Ich werde dich morgen nach der Arbeit anrufen.

I shall call you tomorrow after work.Literally: I become you tomorrow after the work call.

A future perfect can be formed by means of replacing the simple infinitive with a past infinitive (auxiliary + past participle): Ichwerde dich angerufen haben: "I shall have called you."

Some grammarians (e.g. J. Kromeyer, J. C. Gottsched, J. B. v. Antesperg) also labeled or label other forms future forms, like:

imperative future: du sollst loben (you shall praise)indicative uncertain future (German: ungewiß zukünftige Zeit, Latin: tempus futurum incertum): ich will loben (I wantto praise)indicative certain future (German: gewiß künftige Zeit, Latin: tempus futurum certum), or indicative future I: ich werdeloben (I shall praise)indicative conditional future (German: bedingt zukünftige Zeit, Latin: tempus futurum conditionatum), or conjunctive IIfuture: ich würde loben (I would praise)

All these wordings do still exists, but nowadays (usually) only ich werde loben (future I) and sometimes ich würde loben (conjunctiveII future) are labeled future forms.

Dutch can express the future in three ways:[5]

gaan + infinitive: Ik ga het boek lezen (I'm going to read the book). "Gaan" is a cognate of "to go".zullen + infinitive: Ik zal het boek lezen (I will/shall read the book). "Zullen" is a cognate of "shall".present tense + context or a temporal adverb or clause: Hoe lang blijft hij in Nederland? (How long is he staying inthe Netherlands?) Its English-language equivalent uses the continuous or imperfective aspect.

Zullen + infinitive is more similar to 'shall' than to 'will'. It is used to:[6]

express a promise or a proposalemphasize that something will certainly happenexpress that an event is likely going to take place (by explicitly mentioning the probability)

English 'will' and Dutch wil, although cognates, have over the centuries shifted in meaning, such that 'will' is almost identical to'shall', whereas Dutch wil means 'want', as in Ik wil het doen (I want to do it).

Gaan + infinitive can be compared with the English "going to" . It is used:

to express an intended action (but not a promise, proposal, or solemn plan);to say that an event is going to take place (without emphasizing the certainty or mentioning the probability).

Icelandic descends from Old Norse and indeed is scarcely changed from it in the written form. Icelandic uses the auxiliaries:

munu expressing a probable futureskulu (shall) implying obligation or determination.

It is believed that in Old Norse munu expressed the pure future, skulu (shall) expressed obligation or determination as it still does, anda third auxiliary, vilja ("will"), expressed will or intent.

Dutch

Icelandic and Old Norse

A common auxiliary expression of the future, which takes the compound infinitive, is:

ætla expressing intention.

(So "Ég ætla að koma"; I will come)

The verb "verða" (become) is also very commonly used in the meaning "will be", making the lesser used "mun vera" (will be) have abit stronger emphasis on the future than the English translation has.

Like many other Germanic languages, the future can also be expressed by simply using the present tense and having in the sentencewords that imply future action (e.g. "tomorrow"). Because of this, if it is already evident from the sentence that one is talking aboutthe future, then the verb is almost always in the present tense.

Current standard Norwegian auxiliaries are:

vil (cognate with "will"; used to indicate desire)skal (cognate with "shall"; used to indicate intent)kan (cognate with "can"; used to indicate ability)kommer til å (future regardless of intention)

An occasional usage is:

mon (or in Nynorsk mun.).

In Danish the future is usually unmarked, using the present tense form. Sometimes the modals vil ("want") and skal ("must") are usedinstead to indicate futurity, and sometimes blive "become" can have the meaning "will be". The following distinctions illustrate someof their uses:

Det vil aldrig ske "That will never happen" (a prediction) but Det skal ej ske "That shall not happen" (a promise).

Hvad skal du i aften? "What will you (do) tonight?"; Jeg skal besøge mine forældre i weekenden "I will visit my parents thisweekend"; Skal du hjem nu? "Will you go (are you going) home now?".

Han vil hentes "He wants to_be_picked_up"; Han skal hentes "He must be_picked_up". Han vil blive hentet "He will become (be)picked_up (it's already arranged)", but Han skal blive hentet "He will become (be) picked_up (I promise)".

Jeg skal til fødselsdag i morgen "I will (go) to (a) birthday_party tomorrow". Det bliver sjov "That becomes (will be) fun". Vi bliver15 "We become (will be) 15 (there will be fifteen of us)". Han bliver 40 "He becomes (will be) 40".

Swedish[1]:pp.107–108 skall strongly implies intention, but with an adverb such as nog "probably" it can avoid the implication ofintentionality: Det här skall nog gå bra "This will probably go well". However, the past tense of skall, skulle, can be used withoutsuch an adverb to express predictions in the past : Pelle sa, att det skulle bli varmt på eftermiddagen "Pelle said that it would bewarm in the afternoon."

Pure future, regardless of intention, is usually expressed with kommer att (literally: comes to): Det här kommer att gå bra "This willgo well", Du kommer att överleva det här "You will survive this".

Norwegian

Danish

Swedish

Latin and Romance

The future tense forms in Latin varied by conjugation. Here is a sample of the future tense for the first conjugation verb amare, "tolove".

amabo I will (shall) love

amabis you (singular) will love

amabit he, she, it will love

amabimus we will (shall) love

amabitis you (plural) will love

amabunt they will love

See Latin conjugation for further details. Sound changes in Vulgar Latin made future forms difficult to distinguish from other verbforms (e.g., amabit "he will love" vs. amavit "he loved"), and the Latin simple future forms were gradually replaced by periphrasticstructures involving the infinitive and an auxiliary verb, such as debere, venire, velle, or especially habere. All of the modernRomance languages have grammaticalized one of these periphrastic constructions for expressing the future tense; none of them haspreserved the original Latin future.

While Classical Latin used a set of suffixes to the main verb for the future tense, later Vulgar Latin adopted the use of habere ("tohave") with the infinitive, as for example:

petant aut non petant venire habet[7] ("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 followedby a conjugated form of the verb "to have" (Latin habere). As the auxiliary verb lost its modal force (from a verb expressingobligation, desire, or intention, to a simple marker of tense), it also lost syntactic autonomy (becoming an enclitic) and phonologicalsubstance (e.g., Latin first singular habeo > ayyo > Old French ai, Modern French [e]).

Thus the sequence of Latin verbs amare habeo ("I have to love") gave rise to French aimerai, Spanish amaré, etc. "I will love".[8][9]

French

Personal Pronoun Root Verb Conjugation of avoir Future Tense

je

aimer

ai aimerai

tu as aimeras

il/elle/on a aimera

nous avons aimerons

vous avez aimerez

ils/elles ont aimeront

Portuguese

Personal Pronoun Root Verb Conjugation of haver 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

Future tense with habere

Spanish

Personal Pronoun Root Verb Conjugation of haber Future Tense

yo

comprar

he compraré

tú has comprarás

él/ella/usted ha comprará

nosotros hemos 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 notalways identical to the infinitive. Consider the following Spanish examples:

"go out": infinitive salir → 3rd sing. future saldrá (not *salirá)"do": infinitive hacer → 3rd sing. future hará (not *hacerá)

See the grammar articles for the individual languages for more details about verb conjugation.

Romanian, although a Romance language, patterns like Balkan languages such as Greek and Serbo-Croatian (cf. Balkan sprachbund)in that it uses reflexes of the verb vrea (to want):

"love": infinitive a iubi → 3rd sing. future va iubi

Romanian also forms a future tense from the subjunctive, with a preceding particle, o, also derived from vrea:

"love": infinitive a iubi → 3rd sing. future o să iubească (lit. (want) that he love)

In Portuguese, the simple future, called "futuro do indicativo", is quite similar to Spanish. However, the future may also be formedwith the auxiliary verb ir ("to go") in the simple present and with the main verb in the infinitive (vou cantar, vou bater, etc.), but itcannot be done for the verb ir, as something like "vou ir" would sound very strange.

cantar bater partir pôr

eu cantarei baterei partirei porei

tu cantarás baterás partirás porás

ele/você cantará baterá partirá porá

nós cantaremos bateremos partiremos poremos

vós cantareis batereis partireis poreis

eles/vocês cantarão baterão partirão porão

In Portuguese a pronoun may be placed between the root verb and the future tense ending, as in dar-lhe-ei ("I will give it to you"),where the pronoun lhe ("to you") is inserted into the future verb darei ("(I) will give"), between the root (dar) and the future tenseending (ei). This phenomenon is called mesoclisis.

Romanian

Portuguese

Sardinian

Sardinian, due to its early breaking off from Proto-Romance, displays different traits in its morphology. Notably, in the future tense,the verb habeo (aere in Sardinian) is instead proclitic, and doesn't have an individual conjugation on the verb. Instead, aere isconjugated into present tense, and the other verb's infinitive form is used. Thusly, app'aere, app'appidu and app'aere appidu are aere'sfuture, perfect, and future perfect.

In the Slovak language, the future tense is formed only with verbs with imperfective grammatical aspect, with the auxiliary verb byť(to be) in future tense:

byť

person singular plural

1. budem budeme

2. budeš budete

3. bude budú

To this auxiliary verb, the infinitive of the verb to be put into future tense is simply appended:

robiť (to do, to work): budem robiť (I will work, I will be working)hovoriť (to speak, to talk): budeme hovoriť (we will speak/talk, we will be speaking/talking)

Polish language uses both suffixes and auxiliary verbs to express the sense of futurity. The only verb which has its own futureconjugation is być (to be):

być

person singular plural

1. będę będziemy

2. będziesz będziecie

3. będzie będą

The future tense can be formed in two different ways depending on the aspect of the verb. For imperfective verbs, Polish uses thefuture tense of być plus the past tense of the verb at the third person or the infinitive. For instance:

mówić (to say/speak/talk/tell):

-będę mówił (m)/mówiła (f)/ mówiło (n)/mówić (I will say, I will be saying).

-będziesz mówił (m) / mówiła (f) / mówiło (n)/mówić (You will say, you will be saying).

-będzie mówił (m) / mówiła (f) / mówiło (n)/mówić (He/she/it will say, he/she/it will be saying).

-będziemy mówili (mp) / mówiły (nmp) / mówić (We will say, we will be saying).

-będziecie mówili (mp) / mówiły (nmp) / mówić (You will say, you will be saying).

-będą mówili (mp) / mówiły (nmp) / mówić (They will say, they will be saying).

Slavic languages

Slovak

Polish

(m) refers to a male, (f) to a female and (n) is neuter, used with inanimate objects. In Plural, (mp) refers to the masculine-personalgender and (nmp) to non-masculine-personal. The form with the infinitive is less common.

Perfective verbs have only the past and future tenses. As they have no present tense, the rules used to form the present tense inimperfective verbs are used to give the sense of futurity to perfective verbs. For instance, the perfective form of mówić is conjugatedas follows:

powiedzieć (to say/speak/talk/tell)

-powiem (I will say, I will be saying)

-powiesz (You will say, you will be saying)

-powie (He/she/it will say, he/she/it will be saying)

-powiemy (We will say, we will be saying)

-powiecie (You will say, you will be saying)

-powiedzą (They will say, they will be saying)

This example follows the rules of the verbs which conjugate according to the model -em, esz. The other models are -am, asz, -ę, esz, -ę, isz and -ę, ysz. Irregular verbs may change their root, but never their desinence (like in the example above where the root powichanges to powiedz in the third person plural).

In Scottish Gaelic, the future tense is formed in regular verbs by adding aidh or idh to the end of the root form of the verb (idh isused if the final vowel in the root is i).

Danns. (dance.) -> Dannsaidh mi. (I will dance.)Cuir. (put.) -> Cuiridh i. (She will put.)

Inserting cha before the root forms the negative. The initial consonant of the root is lenited where possible, except for d, t or s, whichin certain cases is not lenited. Chan is substituted if the root begins with a vowel or an f followed by a vowel, which is also lenited.

Cha téid mi... (I will not go...)Chan fheuch am peasan sin idir. (That brat will not try at all.)

In the interrogative, an is placed before the root of the verb. If the root begins with b, f, m, or p, am is used instead.

An ith thu sin? (Will you eat that?)Am pòg thu i? (Will you kiss her?)

As in English, some forms are irregular - mostly common verbs. For example, the root for the word "to see" is faic, but the positivefuture tense form "will see" is chì.

The copula is bidh (will be), cha bhi (will not be), am bi (interrogative), and nach bi (negative interrogative).

Bidh mi a' tighinn! (I shall be coming!)Cha bhi e an seo a-màireach. (He will not be here tomorrow.)Am bi thu air falbh as t-samhradh? (Will you be away this summer?)Nach bi sibh a' fuireach airson a' bhìdh? (Will not you be staying for the food, sir?)

The linking verb (that will be) is gum bi (positive) or nach bi (negative).

Tha ise ag ràdh gum bi esan a' dol. (She said that he will be going.)

Celtic languages

Scottish Gaelic

Tha mi an dòchas nach bi iad sgìth. (I hope that they will not be tired.)

In Irish, the future tense is formed two ways in regular verbs, depending on verb class. Class I verbs add faidh or fidh to the end ofthe root form of the verb (fidh is used if the final vowel in the root is e or i).

Glan. (clean.) -> Glanfaidh mé. (I will clean.)Cuir. (put.) -> Cuirfidh sí. (She will put.)

Class II verbs add óidh or eoidh to the end of the root form of the verb (eoidh is used if the final vowel in the root is e, i, or í).

Eistigh. (listen.) -> Eisteoidh mé. (I will listen.)Imir. (play.) -> Imreoidh sí. (She will play.)

Both class I and class II verbs have a special form for the 1st person plural:

Glan. (clean.) -> Glanfaimid. (We will clean.)Cuir. (put.) -> Cuirfimid. (We will put.)Eistigh. (listen.) -> Eisteoimid. (We will listen.)Imir. (put.) -> Imreoimid. (We will play.)

The negative is formed by adding ní. The initial consonant of the root is lenited.

Ní fhreastalóidh mé... (I will not serve...)

In the interrogative, an is placed before the root of the verb, which causes eclipsis.

An iosfaith tú sin? (Will you eat that?)An bpogfaigh tú í? (Will you kiss her?)

Of the ten listed irregular verbs in Irish, six show irregular future forms:

Abair. (say.) -> Déarfaidh sí. (She will say.) (present deireann)Beir. (catch/bring.) -> Béarfaidh sí. (She will bring.) (present beireann)Faigh. (get.) -> Gheobhaidh sí. (She will get.) (present faigheann)Ith. (eat.) -> Iosfaidh sí. (She will eat.) (present itheann)Tar. (come.) -> Tiocfaidh sí. (She will come.) (present tagann)Teigh. (go.) -> Rachaidh sí. (She will go.) (present téann)

One additional irregular verb has an alternate future form:

Feic. (see.) -> Chífidh sí. (She will see.) (regular future feicfidh)

The future of verb tá (be) is beidh (1pl. beimid). The copula is ("is") is is (will be), ní (will not be), an (interrogative), and nach(negative interrogative).

The linking verb (that will be) is go mbí (positive) or nach bí (negative).

Duirt sí go mbeidh sé ag dul. (She said that he will be going.)Tá súil agam nach mbeidh tuirse acu. (I hope that they will not be tired.)

In Welsh, most verbal functions are expressed using constructions with bod (to be). The future may be expressed in the same wayusing the future tense of bod.

Fe fydda i yn... (I will...) Fe fyddi di yn... (thou wilt...) Fe fydd e yn... (he will...) etc.

Irish

Welsh

(The affirmative marker "fe" has no real translation in English and can easily be left out orreplaced with 'mi' in North Wales. Neither word should be confused with subject pronounswhich follow the verb in Welsh).

More commonly Welsh uses a construction with "Mynd" (to go)

"Rwy'n mynd i weld y ffilm yfory" (I'm going to see the film tomorrow)

Futurity can also be expressed by using words that imply future action

Dwi'n mynd yna heddiw: I am going there today.

The simple future, which uses verb suffixes conjugated with the verb, is used to express determination of action or to emphasiseconfidence in outcome. As in the future of bod, the affirmative marker is fe.

Biblical Hebrew has a distinction between past and future tenses which is similar in form to those used in other Semitic languagessuch as Arabic and Aramaic. Gesenius refers to the past and future verb forms as Perfect and Imperfect[10], respectively, separatingcompleted action from uncompleted action. However, the usage of verbs in these forms does not always have the same temporalmeaning 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[11] and the Imperfect-consecutiverefers to the past.

Usage of the imperfect to discuss future events is somewhat uncommon in Biblical Hebrew, as the Bible mainly discusses pastevents. It can be found in quoted speech, such as in the words of Moses (imperfect verbs stressed):

, לא-נראה אליך יהוה” בקלי: כי יאמרו לי, ולא ישמעו אמר, והן לא-יאמינו “1 ויען משה, וי“ 1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor

hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. ”— Exodus 4:1[12]

The Perfect-consecutive is commonly found in prophetic text, describing an unspecified future, as in the Book of Isaiah:

אליו,” 2 והיה באחרית הימים, נכון יהיה הר בית-יהוה בראש ההרים, ונשא, מגבעות; ונהרו“כל-הגוים.

“ 2 In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be establishedas the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. ”

— Isaiah 2:2[13]

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 in Arabic the prefix (س)ـ "sa" is added to the present tense verb, or (سوف) "sawfa".[14]

For example, consider the sentence: I eat apples > " "Akulu tuffahan" "آكل تفاحا

Semitic languages

Hebrew

Arabic

To express the future we have two ways: I will eat apples > "سـآكل تفاحا" "Saakulu tuffahan" or: I will eat apples > "آكل سوف "Sawfa akulu tuffahan" "تفاحا

The first is written as part of the verb, whereas the latter is written as a Clitic to indicate the future but preceding the verb.

In Classical Arabic the latter indicates an individual future action that usually takes place further in the future than the first mentionedform, 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 in dialectal Arabic is quite varied from one dialect to the next. Generally speaking, thewords meaning "want to" (بدي / أريد أن), "go to" (أروح), "intend to"(ناوي /نويت), and many others are used daily to indicate futureactions.[15] Interestingly, in Moroccan Arabic, the word "Ghad" (غاد) is used to indicate future, which literally means "there" (orthere 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, theauxiliary verb 會 / 会 - huì / ㄏㄨㄟˋ, a modal meaning "can", "know how", can alternatively indicate futurity.[16]:p.265;[17]: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":[17]: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.

Creoles are languages with a vocabulary heavily based on a superstrate language but a grammar based on substrate languages and/oruniversal language tendencies. Some Creoles model a future tense/irrealis mood marker on "go" from the superstrate (analogous toEnglish "am going to").[18]:p. 188 In many creoles the future can be indicated with the progressive aspect, analogous to the English"I'm seeing him tomorrow."[18]:p. 190 In general creoles tend to put less emphasis on marking tense than on marking aspect. Whenany of tense, aspect, and modality are specified, they are typically indicated with invariant pre-verbal markers in the sequenceanterior relative tense (prior to the time focused on), irrealis mode (conditional or future), imperfective aspect.[18]:pp. 176–9, p. 191

The future marker in Jamaican Creole is /de go/[18]:pp. 93–95 or /a go/: /de go hapm/ "is going to happen", /mi a go ɹon/ "I am goingto run".

In Belizean Creole, the future tense is indicated by a mandatory invariant pre-verbal particle /(w)a(n)/, /gwein/, or /gouɲ/.

In Gullah the future is indicated by the pre-verbal marker gwine: Uh gwine he'p dem "I'm going to help them".

In Hawaiian Creole, the pre-verbal future marker is gon:[19] Ai gon bai wan pikap "I'm going to buy a pickup".

Mandarin Chinese

Creoles

Jamaican English Creole

Belizean Creole English

Gullah

Hawaiian Creole English

Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole, based on a French superstrate, interchangeably uses pral or va (from French 3rd person singular va "goes") pre-verbally to indicate the future:[20] Mwen va fini lit. "I go finish"; Li pral vini jodi a "He will come today".

4 Future Tenses ExplainedEnglish Grammar Reference and Exercises

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1. Östen Dahl, Tense and Aspect Systems, Blackwell, 1985, pp. 105-106.

2. Fleischman, Suzanne, The Future in Thought and Language, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982: pp. 18-19, 86-89, and95-97.

3. Usage notes on "shall" in New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999 Oxford University Press

4. Comrie, Bernard, Tense, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985: pp. 21, 47-48.

5. Essential Dutch Grammar (https://books.google.com/books?id=GpV6kErbT4IC&pg=PA57)

6. http://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=Verbs.re18

7. St Augustine of Hippo

8. The Importance of Lithuanian for Indo-European Linguistics - Antanas Klimas (http://www.lituanus.org/1969/69_3_02.htm) See section 9.

9. Zink, Gaston (1997). Morphologie du français médiéval (in French) (4th ed.). Paris: PUF. ISBN 2-13-046470-X.

10. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1909) (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius%27_Hebrew_Grammar/106._Use_of_the_Perfect), Wilhelm Gesenius, §106

11. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1909) (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius%27_Hebrew_Grammar/112._The_Perfect_with_W%C4%81w_Consecutive), Wilhelm Gesenius, §112

12. Exodus 4:1, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)

13. Isaiah 2:2, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)

14. WordReference.com Language Forums (http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=443028)

15. WordReference.com Language Forums (http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=346840)

16. Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca, The Evolution of Grammar, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994.

17. Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thomson, Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, 1989.

18. Holm, John, An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000.

19. Sakoda, Kent, and Siegel, Jeff, Pidgin Grammar, Bess Press, 2003, p. 38.

20. Turnbull, Wally R., Creole Made Easy, Light Messages, 2000, p. 13.

References

External links