Italian simple future tense

In Italian the simple future tense is used to express actions that will take place in the future, even if this not always true. Italians, in fact, tend to use the present tense also to describe future actions, especially when they are near in time.

The future tense can be also used to express an hypothesis, a doubt or a guess.

Examples:

• Domani sera mangeremo il tiramisù che ho preparato. (Tomorrow evening we will eat the tiramisù that I have prepared)

• Dove andrete in vacanza quest'anno? (Where will you go on vacation this year?)

• Non trovo i miei occhiali da sole. Forse saranno nella borsa. (I can't find my sunglasses. Maybe they will be in the bag)

Let's start to study the future tense of the auxiliary verbs “essere” (to be) and “avere” (to have).

The future in Italian is formed by replacing for each subject pronoun the final endings of the infinitive form (-ARE, -ERE, -IRE) with the endings you can see below.

• Bocelli canterà all'Arena di Verona tra un mese. (Bocelli will sing at the Arena of Verona in a month)

• Quando venderete l'appartamento? (When will you sell the apartment?)

• Presto partirò per Parigi. (I am leaving for Paris soon)

The verbs that end with -care and -gare take the h before the final endings in order to keep the hard sound.

In italian the future tense can be irregular for some verbs that lose the vowel E, like the verb “avere” (avere = avrò):

andare → andrò

cadere → cadrò

dovere → dovrò

potere → potrò

sapere → saprò

vivere → vivrò

vedere → vedrò

Other verbs drop the vowel E and add a double erre:

bere → berrò

tenere → terrò

rimanere → rimarrò

venire → verrò