The Italian Future Tense
Weilà raga! Welcome to Learn Italian - Grammar Basics 3 - The Future Tense. The Future Tense is one of my personal favorites, one of the main reasons being because its so simple - well, at least once you get to know it a little better, you'll probably feel the same. Let's be real, The Passato Prossimo (what I taught in Grammar Basics 2) is a pretty heavy verb tense full of hefty grammar rules and many things to remember. So with respect to the Passato Prossimo, the Future Tense is a walk in the park. ;)
Here's everything that I went over in the video:
As explained in Grammar Basics 1 & 2, all verbs in Italian have one of three verb endings: ARE, ERE, or IRE. And depending on what a verb ends in will dictate how the verb gets conjugated in every verb tense of the language.
For both ARE & ERE verbs, in the Future Tense they share the SAME verb endings! This is great as it makes it easier to remember verb endings when there aren't so many. The verb endings in the Future Tense for ARE & ERE verbs are as follows:
io (I) - erò
tu (you, informal, singular) - erai
lui/lei (he/she) - erà
noi (we) - eremo
voi (you, plural) - erete
loro (they) - eranno
Remember that for lui & lei, sometimes in written Italian you can see EGLI in the place of LUI, and ELLA in the place of LEI. That's because Egli and Ella are the conservative, traditional ways of saying Lui & Lei.
Another thing to note (something I haven't yet mentioned in a video), is that not only does LEI mean SHE in English, but its also the FORMAL form of YOU. And when you write it, you must write it with a capital L. Otherwise it will simply mean "She". If this is too confusing for you to remember right now, don't fret over it. I'll be sure to include it in one of my next Learn Italian videos.
And ESSI is the conservative, traditional form of LORO.
IRE verb endings in the Future Tense are very similar to the ARE & ERE ones:
io - irò
tu - irai
lui/lei - irà
noi - iremo
voi - irete
loro - iranno
Here is an ARE verb, PARLARE, which means To Talk, conjugated in the future tense.
Keep in mind that ALL phrases and words in the Future Tense in Italian can get translated into English as that you WILL do something or that you ARE GOING TO DO something. In the video and here, I will be only showing the WILL forms of the translation.
Parlare - to talk
io parlerò - I will talk
tu parlerai - you will talk
lui/lei parlerà - he/she will talk
noi parleremo - we will talk
voi parlerete - you all will talk
loro parleranno - they will talk
For an ERE verb I chose LEGGERE, which means To Read:
Leggere - to read
io leggerò - I will read
tu leggerai - you will read
lui/lei leggerà - he/she will read
noi leggeremo - we will read
voi leggerete - you all will read
loro leggeranno - they will read
For an IRE verb, I chose SENTIRE which means To Hear or To Feel. It depends on how the word is used in context to say whether Sentire means To Hear or To Feel. Here's how it gets conjugated:
Sentire - to hear
io sentirò - I will hear/feel
tu sentirai - you will hear/feel
lui/lei sentirà - he/she will hear/feel
noi sentiremo - we will hear/feel
voi sentirete - you all will hear/feel
loro sentiranno - they will hear/feel
And that is pretty much it for conjugating regular verbs in the Future Tense of Italian. Not too bad, right? Just follow along with these notes as you rewatch this video a couple of times. I'm sure with a couple of rewatches and checking out these notes, the Future Tense will seem much clearer to you if it is a bit hazy and confusing now.
Best of luck and definitely check out Grammar Basics 1 & 2 and all of my other videos in my "Learn Italian" series. Feel free to check out all of my many videos in my "Imparare l'Inglese" series as well. Those are the videos in which I teach English for Italian speakers. But I've heard from many native English speakers who watch my videos that they even find my Imparare l'Inglese videos to be helpful to them for learning Italian as well, so definitely give them a watch! (They're all on my channel).
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Here's the video that correlates with this post:
Always remember to SPREAD THE LOVE!
Tom