Italian Future Tense – How To Talk About Future Events In Italian

The future tense in Italian is used to express an action that has yet to happen.

What is Italian Future Tense?

The Italian Future Tense is the equivalent of the English construction with “will” and “going to” and is made by changing the final part of the verb. For instance, the simple future tense of parlo (I talk) becomes parlerò (I will talk). There are two future tenses in Italian: Futuro semplice (Simple Future Tense) and Futuro anteriore (Future Perfect) that are used in different situations.

Examples:

Giorgio arriva oggi. → Giorgio arriverà tra un mese.
Giorgio arrives today → Giorgio will arrive next month.

Oggi torno a Roma. → Il mese prossimo tornerò a Roma.
I go back to Rome today → I’m going back to Rome next month.

When To Use The Italian Future Simple Tense

The Italian futuro semplice and futuro anteriore are used in different situations. The future simple is the easiest to understand. It’s used to talk about an action that hasn’t happened yet.

Examples:

Pranzeremo alle 13.
We’ll have lunch at 1pm.

Sarò in vacanza tra una settimana.
I’ll be on holiday next week.

Se non vuole venire, partirò da solo.
If he doesn’t want to come, I’ll go alone.

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How Do I Make The Simple Future Tense In Italian?

You can form the futuro semplice of regular verbs by adding the following endings to the root of the verb, according to the three conjugations:

1.  -are conjugation: -erò, -erai, -erà, -eremo, -erete, -eranno
2.  -ere conjugation: -erò, -erai, -erà, -eremo, -erete, -eranno
3.  -ire conjugation: -irò, -irai, -irà, -iremo, -irete, -iranno

subject	PARLARE   (to talk)	LEGGERE   (to read)	PARTIRE   (to depart)
io	parl-erò	legg-erò	part-irò
tu	parl-erai	legg-erai	part-irai
lui/lei	parl-erÃ	legg-erÃ	part-irÃ
noi	parl-eremo	legg-eremo	part-iremo
voi	parl-erete	legg-erete	part-irete
loro	parl-eranno	legg-eranno	part-iranno

The Italian futuro semplice (future simple) is usually accompanied by marker words such as:

• domani (tomorrow),
• la prossima settimana (next week),
• tra due/tre mesi (in two/three months).

Simple Future Tense Of The Verbs Essere And Avere

Let’s now see how to conjugate the irregular auxiliary verbs essere and avere in futuro semplice. The Future Simple corresponds to the English: I will be/have, you will be/have, he will be/have… and so on:

ESSERE (to be)	AVERE   (to have)
io sarò	io avrò
tu sarai	tu avrai
lui/lei sarÃ	lui/lei avrÃ
noi saremo	noi avremo
voi sarete	voi avrete
loro saranno	loro avranno

Other Uses Of The Simple Future Tense In Italian

Sometimes, in Italian language other situations require the use of the futuro semplice:

Command

You use the future simple to express an orderand make it sound less authoritative and strong than when using the imperative mood.

Examples:

Mi farai sapere com’è andata.
You will tell me how it goes.

Pulirai tu la cucina.
You will clean the kitchen.

Hypothesis

Or to express a hypothesis, a doubt or a guess:

Examples:

Hai lavorato tutto il giorno, sarai stanco.
You worked all day, you’ll be (you must be) tired

Sono sicuro che sarete dei bravi genitori.
I’m sure you will be great as parents

Che ore sono? Saranno le 16.
What time is it? It could be (it will be) 4pm.

The Italian Futuro Anteriore

The Italian futuro anteriore (future perfect tense) generally corresponds to the English construction will be/have + past participle of the verb (i.e. “will have gone”).
However, we’ll see how you can also find it in other cases where English uses different tenses.

It is formed by using the future simple of one of the auxiliary verbs essere or avere (to be or to have) and then adding the past participle of the verb (participio passato in Italian)

Examples:

Quando avrò finito di fare la doccia, uscirò.
When I finish (will have finished) my shower, I’ll go out.

Quando sarai andato via, farò la doccia.
When you’re gone (will be gone), I’ll take a shower.

When Do I Use The Future Perfect Tense In Italian?

The Italian futuro anteriore (future perfect tense) looks similar to the future simple, but its use is different.
There are three cases where you can use the Italian futuro anteriore:

Anteriority

For future actions that will be finished before another action takes place.

Examples:

Quando avrò finito di mangiare, lo chiamerò.
When I’ll finish eating (will have finished eating), I’ll call him.

Quando me ne sarò andato, ti mancherò.
When I’m gone (will be gone), you’ll miss me.

Dopo che avrà smesso di piovere, usciremo.
When it stops raining (will have stopped raining), we’ll go out.

As you can see from the examples, the future perfect tense is formed by two parts:

1. the future simple of the auxiliary verb essere/avere and
2. the past participle of the verb indicating the action, literally translating as will have finished / will be gone / will have stopped.
   However, in some cases where Italian uses future perfect, English just uses future simple (or even past tense!).

Uncertainty

The second case where you use the futuro anteriore is to express uncertainty about whether something happened or not, or to make an assumption.

Examples:

Perché Marco ha smontato la bici? Si sarà accorto che è rotta.
Why is Marco taking his bicycle apart? He probably noticed (will probably have noticed) that it’s broken.

Temo che non avrà riparato la bici per domani.
I’m afraid he will not fix (will not have fixed) his bike by tomorrow.

Hypothesis

Unlike English, you can even use Future Perfect to make a hypothesis about something that happened in the past and is having consequences on the present moment.

Examples:

Perché è in ritardo? Avrà perso il treno.
Why is he late? Maybe he missed his train.

Paolo era molto nervoso, sarà andato male il suo colloquio di lavoro.
Paolo was very nervous, maybe his interview went wrong.

The Italian futuro anteriore can be hard to understand and use correctly.
The second and third case we described are probably the trickiest for English speakers.

No need to worry if you feel confused: remember that to make a hypothesis about something that happened in the past, you can also choose to use other words instead of forming the futuro anteriore, such as “forse – maybe, perhaps”, “magari – maybe” or “probabilmente – probably” and use a simpler tense such as passato prossimo.

Examples:

Perché è in ritardo? Forse ha perso il treno.
Why is he late? Maybe he missed the train.

Paolo era molto nervoso, forse è andato male il suo colloquio di lavoro.
Paolo was very nervous, perhaps his interview went wrong.

How Do I Make The Perfect Future Tense In Italian?

Here is the future anteriore (future perfect tense), which is formed by using the future simple of the auxiliary verb essere (to be) or avere (to have) + the past participle of the verb expressing the action:

	PARLARE   (to talk)	LEGGERE   (to read)	PARTIRE   (to depart)
Io	avrò parlato	avrò letto	sarò partito/a
tu	avrai parlato	avrai letto	sarai partito/a
lui/lei	avrà parlato	avrà letto	sarà partito/a
noi	avremo parlato	avremo letto	saremo partiti/e
voi	avrete parlato	avrete letto	sarete partiti/e
loro	avranno parlato	avranno letto	saranno partiti/e

When forming the past participle to conjugate the futuro anteriore, the endings of the past participle must change whether it refers to a female, a male or a group of people. The past participle with the verb avere remains unchanged. You will say:

• Lui sarà andato – He will be gone
• Lei sarà andata – She will be gone
• Noi saremo andati – We will be gone (males)
• Noi saremo andate – We will be gone (females)
• Loro saranno andati – They will be gone (males)
• Loro saranno andate – They will be gone (females)

Perfect Future Tense Of The Verbs Essere And Avere

Let’s now see how to conjugate essere and avere in futuro anteriore.

The futuro anteriore (future perfect) can be literally translated as “will have been” “will have had”:

ESSERE (to be)	AVERE   (to have)
io sarò stato/a	io avrò avuto
tu sarai stato/a	tu avrai avuto
lui/lei sarà stato/a	lui/lei avrà avuto
noi saremo stati/e	noi avremo avuto
voi sarete stati/e	voi avrete avuto
loro saranno stati/e	loro avranno avuto

Other Uses Of The Perfect Future Tense In Italian

Regarding the Italian futuro anteriore (future perfect tense), we’ve seen that it can have different uses.
This tense is difficult for most English-speakers since it’s not common in everyday English.

When Italian uses the futuro anteriore, English speakers can use the future, present or even past tenses:

• Quando avrai mangiato le verdure, ti darò il dessert
  When you finish eating your vegetables, I will give you the dessert.
  or
  When you have finished eating your vegetables, I will give you the dessert.

If you want to translate this sentence literally, it would be:

• When you will have finished eating your vegetables, I will give you the dessert

To understand the futuro anteriore, you need to think that it’s used to talk about a “past future” event. That is to say, a future event that it’s in the past from the perspective of a later future event. So, from a present point of view it’s a future event, but from the perspective of a later future event, it’s in the past!

Most Common Irregular Verbs In The Simple Future Tense

There are many irregular verbs commonly used in Italian that you need to know if you want to conjugate them correctly. Let’s see first how to form the futuro semplice of irregular verbs. Some irregular verbs drop the vowel at the beginning of the Future Simple suffix. Therefore, when forming futuro semplice the suffixes -erò, -erai etc. become -rò, -rai, -rà, -remo -rete, -ranno. For instance:

• andare (to go): andr-ò, and-rai, and-rà, and-remo, and-rete, and-ranno
• avere (to have): avr-ò, av-rai, av-rà, av-remo, av-rete, av-ranno
• dovere (to have to): dov-rò, dov-rai, dov-rà, dov-remo, dov-rete, dov-ranno
• potere (to be able to): pot-rò, pot-rai, pot-rà, pot-remo, pot-rete, pot-ranno
• sapere (to know): sap-rò, sap-rai, sap-rà, sap-remo, sap-rete, sap-ranno
• vedere (to see): ved-rò, ved-rai, ved-rà, ved-remo, ved-rete, ved-ranno
• vivere (to live): viv-rò, viv-rai, viv-rà, viv-remo, viv-rete, viv-ranno

Some irregular verbs lose not only their endings, but also part of the root, replacing it with “rr”. Therefore, the Future Simple suffix becomes -rrò, -rrai, -rrà, -rremo, -rrete, -rranno.

For example:

• Venire (to come) – ve-rrò, ve-rrai, ve-rrà, ve-rremo, ve-rrete, ve-rranno
• Tenere (to hold) – te-rrò, te-rrai, te-rrà, te-rremo, te-rrete, te-rranno
• Volere (to want): – vo-rrò, vo-rrai, vo-rrà, vo-rremo, vo-rrete, vo-rranno
• Rimanere (to remain): – rima-rrò, rima-rrai, rima-rrà, rima-rremo, rima-rrete, rima-rranno

Another group of verbs which have their infinitives ending in –care  and –gare, will add an “h” before the Future Simple suffix, so that -erò, -erai, etc. become -herò, -herai, -herà, -heremo, -herete -heranno. This is done in order to maintain the hard â€œc” and â€œg” sounds:

• Pagare (to pay) – pag-herò, pag-herai – pag-herà, pag-heremo, pag-herete, pag-heranno
• Giocare (to play) – gioc-herò, gioc-herai, gioc-herà, gioc-heremo, gioc-herete, gioc-heranno

Verbs with infinitives ending in -ciare and -giare will drop the -i from the root when forming the Future Simple. So, for the verb mangiare (to eat), you will not say mangierò, but mangerò.

• Cominciare (to start) – cominc-erò, cominc-erai, cominc-erà, cominc-eremo, cominc-erete, cominc-eranno
• Mangiare (to eat) – mang-erò, mang-erai, mang-erà, mang-eremo, mang-erete, mang-eranno
• Lasciare (to leave) – lasc-erò, lasc-erai, lasc-erà, lasc-eremo, lasc-erete, lasc-eranno

Other irregular verbs have to be studied by heart because they do not follow any grammatical rule:

• Dare (to give) – darò, darai, darà, daremo, darete, daranno
• Fare (to do/make) – farò, farai, farà, faremo, farete, faranno
• Stare (to stay) – starò, starai, starà, staremo, starete, staranno

When forming the futuro anteriore, we’ve seen that you need to use the future simple of the irregular auxiliary essere or avere + the past participle of the verb expressing the action.
Remember that some Italian verbs also have irregular past participle, and may not follow the general rule (form ending in -ato, -uto or -ito).

The advice is to always check whether a verb is irregular or not and which auxiliary it needs in a conjugator online, like .

Do I Really Need To Know The Future Tense In Italian?

Sometimes, in Italian you can use the present tense to refer to the future.
This happens in three cases:

Certainty

When you are talking about something that will surely happen.

Examples:

Luca parte domani e torna lunedì prossimo.
Luca leaves tomorrow and comes back next Monday.

Ci vediamo domani alle 9.
We’ll meet tomorrow at 9.

Sei andato in banca? No, vado martedì.
Did you go to the bank? No, I’ll go on Tuesday.

Imminence

To talk about something that you are about to do.

Examples:

Esco e vado a prendere il latte.
I’m going out to buy milk.

Lascia stare, pago io.
Leave it, I’ll pay.

Io prendo un cappuccino.
I’ll have a cappuccino.

”Shall we…?”

Examples:

Vado io?
Shall I go?

Apro la finestra?
Shall I open the window?

La chiamo?
Shall I call her?

For the futuro anteriore keep in mind that in everyday language it’s not wrong to use the futuro semplice instead of the futuro anteriore.

Examples:

Quando Francesca arriverà, pranzeremo.
When Francesca arrives (will arrive), we’ll have lunch.

Quando smetterà di piovere, uscirò.
When it’ll stop raining, I’ll go out.

You can see that for some upcoming events, especially those that will happen shortly, Italians simply use the present tense.

However, it’s very useful to know how to form the future tense in Italian.

Now that you know how to use the Italian future tense, you can talk with your friends or family about your plans or future travels, hopefully in Italy!