Looking To the Future

| Fri, 01/07/2011 - 10:07

At this time of year we are all thinking of the future so let us explore the use of the future tense in 禁漫天堂:

The good news is that the formation of the future tense is relatively easy as there are no auxiliary verbs or agreements to worry about.

With regular 鈥 are verbs, you change the "a" of the infinitive ending to "e" and drop the second "e":

Parlare 鈥 parler

Then you add the future tense endings:

[io] 辫补谤濒别谤貌 鈥 I will speak
[tu] parlerai 鈥 you [familiar] will speak
[lui /lei /Lei] 辫补谤濒别谤脿 鈥 he / she / you [polite] / it will speak
[noi] parleremo 鈥 we will speak
[voi] parlerete 鈥 you [plural] will speak
[loro] parleranno 鈥 they will speak

With regular 鈥 ere and 鈥 ire verbs, you just drop the final e of the infinitive and add the future tense endings:

[io] 惫别苍诲别谤貌 鈥 I will sell
[tu] finirai 鈥 you will finish

Of course, many verbs are irregular and have irregular future stems but the future tense endings remain the same, so if you know the 鈥渋o鈥 form you can conjugate the rest of the verb. Any grammar book will give you a list but here are the 鈥渋o鈥 forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:

Essere 鈥 to be 鈥 io sar貌
Andare 鈥 to go 鈥 io andr貌
Vedere鈥 to see 鈥 io vedr貌
Venire 鈥 to come 鈥 io verr貌
Fare 鈥 to do / make 鈥 蹿补谤貌
Dire 鈥 to say - 诲颈谤貌

The future tense is used to talk about future actions. It is used where English uses the present continuous for the future:

Andr貌 a Roma la settimana prossima 鈥 I鈥檓 going to Rome next week

It is also used where English uses the present simple for the future after the word 鈥淲hen鈥:

Quando Giovanni arriver脿, sar貌 felice 鈥 When Giovanni arrives, I鈥檒l be happy.

See if you can change the verb in brackets into the correct future tense form in these sentences:

See if you can change the verb in brackets into the correct future tense form in these sentences:

1. Quando [arrivare] ________ il treno?
2. Loro [prendere] ________ il pranzo al bar.
3. A che ora [finire] ________ il lavoro, Marco?
4.Maria [tornare] ________ alle undici.
5.Noi ci [scrivere] ________ fra qualche giorno.
6. Io te lo [dire] ________ stasera.