What will happen: the future

Latin has six tenses in the indicative. The future (dicet, he will say) is built on the present stem; the pluperfect (dixerat, he had said) and the future perfect (dixerit, he will have said) are built on the perfect stem. Here are all six on one verb.

Three tenses on the present stem dic-, three on the perfect stem dix-. Learn the perfect dixi and the last three cost almost nothing.

The future comes in two shapes

First and second conjugation verbs put -b- and a vowel before the personal ending:

• Super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam. - On this rock I will build my church. (Matthew 16:18, in the Vulgate)

Third and fourth conjugation verbs have no -b-. They use -a- for I and -e- everywhere else:

• Quaerite et invenietis. - Seek and you will find. (Matthew 7:7, in the Vulgate)

The third-conjugation verbs in -io go with audio, keeping their -i-:

• Librum capiet. - He will take the book.
• Hoc faciam. - I will do this.

Dicam and faciam are also the present subjunctive, I may say, I may do. On its own the first person cannot tell you which; the rest of the sentence does.

One vowel tells the tense

Both futures sit one vowel away from another tense, and the vowel is in the middle of the word, the last place an English reader looks.

In the first two conjugations -bi- is future and -ba- is imperfect. In the third and fourth, -e- is future and -i- is present.

The irregular futures

Sum has its own future, and the verbs built on it copy it:

• Hodie mecum eris in paradiso. - Today you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)
• Dominus regit me, et nihil mihi deerit. - The Lord rules me, and I shall want for nothing. (Psalm 22:1 in the Vulgate, Psalm 23 in most English Bibles)

Eo is the odd one out: its infinitive ire rhymes with audire, yet its future has the -b- of the first conjugation. Volo and fero go the other way and take the -am, -et future.

Every compound of sum follows ero:

• Adero. - I will be present.
• Cras aberit. - He will be absent tomorrow.