Italian Future Tense: One Set of Endings for Every Verb

The Italian future tense is one of the friendliest bits of the grammar. There is one set of endings, it works for -are, -ere and -ire verbs alike, and even the irregular verbs only change the stem, never the endings. The short version:

• take the infinitive and drop the final -e: parlar-, prender-, finir-
• for -are verbs, change the a to e: parler-
• add -ò, -ai, -à, -emo, -ete, -anno

Domani parlerò con lui. - I will speak to him tomorrow.

The surprise is not in the forms. It is that Italians reach for this tense less often than English speakers expect, and use it for a job English does with must and probably.

The endings, once, for everything

Here are the three families side by side. Look along any row and the ending is identical; the only difference is the vowel before the r.

Three things to notice.

The a of -are becomes e. Parlare gives parlerò, not parlarò. This is the only thing that separates the -are verbs from the -ere ones in the future, and it is the one learners forget. Once it goes in, parlare and prendere behave identically.

The stress falls on the ending. The io and lui / lei forms carry a written accent (parlerò, parlerà) because the stress lands on that final vowel, and the accent is not optional in writing: parlero without it is a spelling mistake. The noi and voi forms stress the e of the ending, and the loro form stresses -ran-.

Every person is distinct. Unlike the present, where sono does double duty, no two future forms are the same, which is why the subject pronoun can be dropped here as easily as anywhere (see Italian subject pronouns).

If the regular present tense is not yet solid, go back to Italian verb conjugation first; the future assumes you can find a verb's family from its infinitive.

Two spelling adjustments

These are not irregularities, just Italian spelling keeping the sound of the stem steady:

• -care and -gare add an h, so the c and g stay hard: cercare becomes cercherò, pagare becomes pagherò.
• -ciare and -giare drop the i, because before an e it has nothing left to do: mangiare becomes mangerò, cominciare becomes comincerò.

Say them aloud and they are obvious. Without the h, cercerò would be pronounced with a ch sound, which is a different stem.

The irregular futures

Here the tense is generous again. The irregular verbs keep the regular endings and only change the stem, and they fall into a few tidy groups. Learn the io form and the other five follow.

The third row catches people out. Fare, dare and stare are -are verbs, but they do not change their a to e: it is farò, never ferò. They are short verbs, and the a is most of the stem.

Essere and avere in full, because you will use them more than all the rest:

Sarò felice. - I will be happy.

Il prossimo anno avrò più tempo. - Next year I will have more time.

When Italians actually use the future

This is where the textbooks mislead. Italian has a future tense, but in everyday speech the present tense does most of the future's work, as long as a time word makes the timing clear:

Domani vado a Parigi. - I am going to Paris tomorrow.

Ci vediamo domani. - See you tomorrow.

Domani andrò a Parigi is perfectly correct, but about a trip with the ticket already booked it can sound a touch more formal, more like an announcement than a plan. English does the same thing (I am going tomorrow, the train leaves at eight), so the instinct is not foreign; it is just stronger in Italian.

The future proper comes out for:

• promises and decisions: Lo farò domani. - I will do it tomorrow. Tornerò presto. - I will be back soon.
• predictions and things further off: Il prossimo anno andremo a Londra. - Next year we will go to London.
• the non-committal shrug: Vedremo. - We will see. This one-word answer is worth learning whole; it is how Italians decline without saying no.

The future of guessing

Here is the use that surprises every English speaker, and it is one of the most common in the whole language. Italian uses the future to make a guess about the present:

Dove sarà? - Sarà a casa. - Where can he be? He is probably at home.

Che ore sono? - Saranno le otto. - What time is it? It must be about eight.

Sarà stanco. - He must be tired.

Sarà vero. - It is probably true. (or, with a certain tone, I suppose so)

None of these sentences is about the future. Saranno le otto is about right now; the future tense marks it as a supposition. English does the same job with must, probably or I suppose; Italian does it by switching tense, and uses it so readily that you will hear it daily. If an Italian sentence in the future tense makes no sense as a prediction, read it as a guess.

After quando and se

English says when I have time, I will call you, with the present in the first half. Italian puts the future in both halves when both are in the future:

Quando avrò tempo, ti chiamerò. - When I have time, I will call you.

Quando avrò tempo is the form grammars recommend. In relaxed speech you will hear the present in both halves (quando ho tempo ti chiamo), which is also fine, and the mixed quando ho tempo, ti chiamerò is common in speech too. Native speakers use all three; the future in both halves is simply the one that is right in every register, so aim for that.

With se (if), both are acceptable: Se verrai, sarò felice is the careful version, and se vieni, sono felice the everyday one.

Time words that carry the future

Since the present tense so often does the future's job, the time word is what tells the listener you mean tomorrow rather than today. These are the ones to have ready:

Note tra: in a week's time is tra una settimana, not in una settimana, which means within a week, a different claim. And there is no Italian equivalent of the English going to future. I am going to call him is simply Lo chiamo or, with more commitment, lo chiamerò; using andare for it produces a sentence about physically going somewhere.

The future perfect, briefly

Italian also has a future perfect, the futuro anteriore, built from the future of essere or avere plus a participle, using exactly the same auxiliary choice as the passato prossimo (see essere and avere):

Avrò finito. - I will have finished.

Sarò arrivato. - I will have arrived.

It shows up mostly after quando (when I have finished is quando avrò finito) and, again, for guessing about the recent past: Sarà arrivato can mean he must have arrived by now. You will recognise it long before you need to produce it.

Mistakes English speakers make with the future

Keeping the a of -are verbs. Parlarò, mangiarò. The a always becomes e, except in fare, dare and stare.

Changing the a in fare, dare and stare. The mirror image: ferò, sterò. These three keep it.

Leaving off the accent in writing. Parlero and sara are misspellings, not informal variants.

Using the future for every plan. Domani andrò al lavoro is grammatical, but domani vado al lavoro is what most people say. With a time word, the present is the natural choice.

Missing the guess. Hearing Sarà a casa as he will be at home and waiting for a time that never comes. It means he is probably at home.

Copying the English present after quando. Speech allows it, but when the event is in the future, the careful form, and the one to write, puts the future after quando too.

What to do next

Learn the six endings once, learn the irregular io forms as a list of about a dozen words, and you have the whole tense. Then spend your practice on the two uses that are genuinely Italian, the present for plans and the future for guesses, because those are what make the tense sound natural rather than translated. The exercises below mix the forms and the uses; the Italian course then puts them into full sentences, and essere and avere have more examples of the two futures you will use most.