How to Use the Future Tense in French

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Tenses in French can be un peu difficile. Past tense, conditional, past perfect… it can make your head spin. So here is your simple guide to the world of futur simple.

To describe actions that will happen months, weeks, or even days in advance, you simply take the original, unconjugated verb and add the endings ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, or -ont to it. For example, the word danser would be conjugated like this:

Je danserai (I will dance)

Tu danseras (You will dance)

Il/elle dansera (He/she will dance)

Nous danserons (We will dance)

Vous danserez (You will dance)

Ils/Elles danseront (They will dance)

There are, of course, irregular verbs whose conjugations stray from the norm. Ones used here include the verbs faire and avoir. Faire takes the root fer- (Je ferai de la moto) and avoir takes the root aur- (Nous aurons froid).

So, time for a pop quiz: How would you say, “I’m going to ace my next French test”?

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