Les Notes |
Recall that the single interrogative pronoun in English what? has many different equivalents in French. If what? functions as the subject of a verb, the French equivalent is qu'est-ce qui?, as in "Qu'est-ce qui se passe?" ("What's happening?"). When what? functions as the object of a verb, there are two equivalents: que? and qu'est-ce que?. With que the verb is inverted: "Que vois-tu?" ("What do you see?). With qu'est-ce que?, the verb is not inverted: "Qu'est-ce que tu vois?" ("What do you see?).
Like English, French can express the future in a variety of ways. Both languages have of course the simple future. So: "I'll speak French in Paris during my vacation/Je parlerai français à Paris pendant mes vacances";
"You'll finish your homework tomorrow/Tu finiras tes devoirs demain";
"He'll sell his textbooks at the end of the semester/Il vendra ses manuels à la fin du semestre"; etc.
For all the similarity in meaning between the simple future in French and the simple future in English, there are a few ways in which they differ. One of the ways involves the temporal conjunctions quand, lorsque (when), and aussitôt que, dès que (as soon as). When the principal verb in French is in French, the verb used with the temporal conjunction should also be in the future. So: "Dès que j'aurai mon diplôme, je chercherai un emploi." On the other hand, English would use the present tense in the temporal clause, in spite of the future context. So: "As soon as I get my degree, I'll look for a job."The simple future in French is formed easily enough: you just add to the infinitive what are essentially present-tense forms of avoir. So: je parler+ai nous parler+ons
tu parler+as vous parler+ez
elle parler+a ils parler+ont.
Similarly for -ir verbs, you have je finir+ai, tu finir+as, etc.
But for -re verbs, just remember to suppress the final e. So: je vendr+ai, tu vendr+as, etc.But as you might expect, many irregular verbs have an irregular stem for the simple future.So for instance:
aller/ir-
avoir/aur-
devoir/devr-
être/ser-
faire/fer-
il faut/il faudra
savoir/saur-
pouvoir/pourr--
venir/viendr-
vouloir/voudr-
But to those irregular future stems, you still add the regular simple-future endings. So: j'irai, tu auras, il devra, Nous serons, vous ferez, elles sauront, etc.But both languages also have a whole range of expressions that point to the future without using forms of the simple future. So: "I want to speak French Paris during my vacation/Je veux parler français à Paris pendant mes vacances";
"You hope to finish your homework tomorrow/Tu espères finir tes devoirs demain";
"He intends to sell his textbooks at the end of the semester/Il a l'intention de vendre ses manuels à la fin du semestre"; etc.