Kilo Lingo

(jiāng lái) - the future, in the future in Mandarin

jiānglái

Traditional: 將來

#2300 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

the future, in the future

Word origin

A compound of 将 (jiāng, about to, going to) and 来 (lái, to come), so the time that is coming.

Origin
compound
Root
将 (jiāng, about to) + 来 (lái, to come)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 将

Stroke order for 来

Examples

What do you want to do in the future?

He is sure to succeed in the future.

Nobody can be sure about the future.

We should make plans for the future.

In future I want to live by the sea.

将来 (jiāng lái) is the future as a stretch of your own life: what you will do, where you will live, who you will become. It pairs naturally with 现在 and 过去.

Grammatically it is a time word, so it needs no preposition and it likes the front of the sentence: 将来我想住在海边. English forces in or in the future; Mandarin just puts the time first and moves on.

Two neighbours to keep apart. 未来 is the same idea pitched higher and wider, the future of a country or of technology, and it can modify a noun directly (未来五年). 以后 means afterwards, relative to some point already mentioned, so 我以后想住在海边 quietly implies after whatever we were just talking about.

Where this fits

Used in

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Mandarin · Free printables

将来: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 46.