THE FUTURE TENSE — IL FUTURO

The future tense in English is a compound (i.e. more than a single word) tense, made with the auxiliary verbs "shall" and "will".

In Italian, the future tense is a simple (i.e. single word) tense, made by adding six ending to the present infinitive:

These ending are attached to the present infinitive which loses the final -e. Look at the table below:

Please note three things:

1. Verbs like parlare change the vowel in their infinitive from -a- to -e-

2. There are accents written on the First Person Singular and Third Person Singular in all verbs.

3. You will have to be careful with the spelling of some verbs when you put them into the Future Tense in order to preserve the sound in their infinitive. This will happen with verbs ending in -care and -gare, e.g.

pagare (to pay)       I'll pay = pagherò
cercare (to look for)   I'll look for = cercherò

This will also happen with verbs ending in -ciare and -giare, e.g.

cominciare (to begin)  I'll begin = comincerò
viaggiare (to travel)   I'll travel = viaggerò

IRREGULAR VERBS: A few verbs don't quite follow the pattern above. You need to learn what they do:

The Future Tense of avere and essere is:

There are another ten common verbs which you need to learn:

Apart from the verb essere, only two verbs, volere and venire, are awkward and need careful attention.

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