In
Germanic languages, including
English, a common expression of the future is using the
present tense, with the futurity expressed using words that imply future action (
I go to Berlin tomorrow
or I am going to Berlin
tomorrow). There is no simple (
morphological) future tense as such. However, the future can also be expressed by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain present tense
auxiliary verbs with the simple infinitive (stem) of the main verb. These auxiliary forms vary between the languages. Other, generally more informal, expressions of futurity use an auxiliary with the compound infinitive of the main verb (as with the English
is going to ...).
English English grammar provides a number of ways to indicate the future nature of an occurrence. Some argue that English, like most Germanic languages, does not have a future tense—that is, a grammatical form that always indicates futurity—nor does it have a mandatory form for the expression of futurity. However, through gradual development from its Germanic roots, English became what is now considered a strongly future-tense-marking language. Currently, there are several generally accepted ways to indicate futurity in English, and some of them—particularly those that use
will or shall as the most universal and widely used—are frequently described as future tense while some may argue these verbs serve both as present modal verbs and future tense markers. with
will being more common. For details see
shall and will.) The meaning of this construction is close to that expressed by the future tense in other languages. However the same construction with
will or
shall can have other meanings that do not indicate futurity, or else indicate some
modality in addition to futurity (as in "He will make rude remarks," in the sense of "He is wont to make rude remarks," meaning he has a habit of doing so; or, "You shall stop making rude remarks," which is giving an order). For details of these meanings, see the sections on
will and
shall in the article on English modal verbs. The form of the
will/shall future described above is frequently called the
simple future (or
future simple). Other constructions provide additional auxiliaries that express particular
aspects: the
future progressive (or
future continuous) as in "He will be working"; the
future perfect as in "They will have finished"; and the
future perfect progressive as in "You will have been practising." For detail on these, see the relevant sections of
Uses of English verb forms. (For more on expressions of relative tense, such as the future perfect, see also the section
above.) Several other English constructions commonly refer to the future: • Futurate
present tense forms, as in "The trains leave at five" (meaning "The trains
will leave at five"), or "My cousins arrive tomorrow" (meaning "My cousins
will arrive tomorrow"). Since these grammatical forms are used more canonically to refer to present situations, they are not generally described as future tense; in sentences like those just given they may be described as "present tense with future meaning". Use of the present tense (rather than forms with
will) is mandatory in some
subordinate clauses referring to the future, such as "If I feel better next week, ..." and "As soon as they arrive, ...". For more details see the sections on the
simple present,
present progressive and
dependent clauses in the article on English verb forms. • The
going-to future, e.g., "John is going to leave tonight." • The construction with a finite form of the
copula verb be together with the
to-infinitive, e.g., "John
is to leave tonight". (With the
zero copula of
newspaper headline style, this becomes simply "John to leave tonight".) For details see
am to. • The construction with
to be about to, e.g., "John is about to leave", referring to the expected immediate future. (A number of lexical expressions with similar meaning also exist, such as
to be on the point of (doing something).) • Use of
modal verbs with future meaning, to combine the expression of future time with certain
modality: "I
must do this" (also
mun in Northern English dialect); "We
should help him"; "I
can get out of here"; "We
may win"; "You
might succeed". The same modal verbs are also often used with present rather than future reference. For details of their meanings and usage, see
English modal verbs. Questions and negatives are formed from all of the above constructions in the regular manner: see
Questions and
Negation in the English grammar article. The auxiliaries
will and
shall form the
contracted negations ''won't
and shan't
(they can also sometimes be contracted when not negated, to 'll
, such as in I'll find it''). The various ways of expressing the future carry different meanings, implying not just futurity but also
aspect (the way an action or state takes place in time) and/or
modality (the attitude of the speaker toward the action or state). The precise interpretation must be based on the context. In particular there is sometimes a distinction in usage between the
will/shall future and the
going-to future (although in some contexts they are interchangeable). For more information see the
going-to future article.
Dutch Dutch can express the future in three ways: •
gaan + infinitive: Ik ga het boek lezen (I'm going to read the book). "
Gaan" is a
cognate of "to go". •
zullen + infinitive: Ik zal het boek lezen (I will/shall read the book). "
Zullen" is a cognate of "shall". •
present tense + context or a temporal adverb or clause:
Hoe lang blijft hij in Nederland? (How long is he staying in the Netherlands?) Its English-language equivalent uses the continuous or
imperfective aspect.
Zullen + infinitive is more similar to
shall than to
will. It is used to: • express a promise or a proposal • emphasize that something will certainly happen • express that an event is likely going to take place (by explicitly mentioning the probability) English
will and Dutch
wil, although cognates, have over the centuries shifted in meaning, such that
will is almost identical to
shall, whereas Dutch
wil means
want, as in
Ik wil het doen (I want to do it).
Gaan + infinitive can be compared with the English "going to" . It is used: • to express an intended action (but not a promise, proposal, or solemn plan) • to say that an event is going to take place (without emphasizing the certainty or mentioning the probability)
Swedish Swedish skall strongly implies intention, but with an adverb such as
nog "probably" it can avoid the implication of intentionality:
Det här skall nog gå bra "This will probably go well". However, the past tense of
skall,
skulle, can be used without such an adverb to express predictions in the past:
Pelle sa, att det skulle bli varmt på eftermiddagen "Pelle said that it would be warm in the afternoon." Pure future, regardless of intention, is usually expressed with
kommer att (literally: "comes to"):
Det här kommer att gå bra "This will go well",
Du kommer att överleva det här "You will survive this". Generally, future tense is sparsely used in spoken Swedish, with the verb instead being put in present tense and accompanied by a distinct time specification:
Jag åker till Spanien på fredag "I travel to Spain on Friday"
Då ses vi imorgon. "Then we meet tomorrow" == Latin and Romance ==