Portuguese 2.4. Future Tense

One informal but common way to express the future tense in the indicative mood is by using the auxiliary verb “ir” (to go) to form “ir + infinitive.”

For example, “Eu vou viajar” literally means “I go travel,” but it is similar in purpose to the English expression “I am going to travel.”

To form the informal future tense, “ir” can be used only in the simple present tense.

		-ar ending e.g., falar	-er ending e.g., comer	-ir ending e.g., partir
eu	vou	falar	comer	partir
ele/ela/você	vai
nós	vamos
eles/elas/vocês	vão

Simple Future Tense

The formal simple future tense is also used to express events in the future and is more common in written literature. The regular verb conjugation uses the infinitive as a stem. Conjugation endings are the same for all three verb groups.

	-ar ending falar (to speak)	-er ending comer (to eat)	-ir ending partir (to live)
eu	falarei	comerei	partirei
ele/ela/você	falará	comerá	partirá
nós	falaremos	comeremos	partiremos
eles/elas/vocês	falarão	comerão	partirão

In addition to expressing events in the future, the simple future tense can also be used to express conjecture or possibility, e.g., “A menina terá 15 anos” (The girl might be 15 years old), “Onde estará meu celular?” (Where could my cell phone be?).

Another less common use of the simple future tense is giving commands, e.g., “Não mentirá” (You shall/will not lie), “Sentará aqui” (You shall/will sit here), etc.

Irregular Verbs

The verbs “dizer” (to say), “fazer” (to do), and “trazer” (to bring) change their stem to “dir-,” “far-,” and “trar-,” respectively, to form the simple conditional tense conjugation. These three verbs are irregular and must be memorized.

	dizer dir-	fazer far-	trazer trar-
eu	direi	farei	trarei
ele/ela/você	dirá	fará	trará
nós	diremos	faremos	traremos
eles/elas/vocês	dirão	farão	trarão

Examples

Below are some examples that use the simple future tense:

Viajarei para Londres no mês que vem.	I will travel to London next month.
Não irei à academia amanhã.	I will not go to the gym tomorrow.
Você estudará para a prova.	You will study for the exam.
Moraremos em uma cidade pequena.	We will live in a small city.
Eles dormirão o dia todo.	They will sleep all day.
Direi a verdade se me perguntarem.	I will tell the truth if they ask me.

Next: Possessive Adjectives & Pronouns

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