Seneca
Sign up

Tolérance - Grammar

French: AQA A Level, topic 4.2.4

Tolérance - Grammar

The simple future tense in French

Introduction

Introduction

  • Starting with regular verbs, the first step of using it in the simple future is to take the infinitive of the verb (remember the infinitive is the verb on its own, like manger = to eat.
  • Nobody is doing the action of the eating yet in any tense, it’s just a lonely verb at the moment.
  • Keep the verb in the infinitive but add the following endings to them. This then puts the infinitive verb in the simple future tense so we know that this will happen:
Conjugation singular

Conjugation singular

  • Je
    • infinitive+ai
  • Tu
    • infinitive+as
  • Il/elle/on
    • infinitive+a
Conjugation plural

Conjugation plural

  • Nous
    • infinitive+ons
  • Vous
    • infinitive+ez
  • Ils/elles
    • infinitive+ont
Types of verbs

Types of verbs

  • Infinitive ER 🡪 manger (to eat), visiter (to visit)
    • Je mangerai or Nous visiterons
  • Infinitive IR 🡪 finir (to finish), grandir (to grow up)
  • Il finira or Tu grandiras
  • Infinitive RE 🡪 attendre (to wait), répondre (to answer)
    • Elle attendra or Ils répondront
  • For RE, we have removed the final ‘e’ from the original infinitive verb.
Exceptions

Exceptions

  • Irregular verbs still use the same endings that you have seen above but it is the stem (the beginning part of the verb) that is different this time.
    • être = ser+
    • avoir = aur+
    • aller = ir+
    • faire = fer+
    • pouvoir = pourr+
    • venir = viendr+
  • Once you have found the stem you need, you will then put the personal pronoun and the correct simple future tense ending around it to form the future tense of this irregular verb.
Example

Example

  • For Être, the stem of the verb will be different.
    • In the table above, I can see that the stem I need is ser.
  • The personal pronoun I need is Je
    • I have je + ser
  • I need to add the simple future tense ending to my irregular stem. The ending I need to add is ai because it goes with Je
    • So now I have je + ser + ai = je serai 🡪 I will be

Test yourself on Tolérance - Grammar

  • Select the correct answer for this translation:
    I will be

  • Select the correct answer for this translation:
    We will go

  • Select the correct answer for this translation:
    He will have

  • Select the correct answer for this translation:
    She will be able to

  • Select the correct answer for this translation:
    They will make

Practise this topic for free