Lesson 11 – Near future and indication of time

1. Days of the week

lundi Monday jeudi Thursday

mardi Tuesday vendredi Friday

mercredi Wednesday samedi Saturday dimanche Sunday

2. Near Future

Future in French can be expressed in several ways. This lesson shows two simple ways to
start using future :
- use present with indication of time
- use near future with : aller + infinitif
A third way is a tense called simple future for less probable events, inaccurate in tame, in
late future.
 Future using Present tense with indication of time :

French uses present time for future when an event is certain to happen, it shows a more
direct situation related with expression :

Lundi, je mange au restaurant (m). I’m eating at a restaurant on Monday.

Ce soir, il va au parc (m). Tonight, he’s going to the park.

Demain je travaille. Tomorrow I’m working.

Le samedi, je ne travaille pas. I don ‘t work on Saturday.

Les samedis, je ne travaille pas. I don ‘t work on Saturdays.
Ce samedi, je ne travaille pas. I'm not working this Saturday.

Vite, le train arrive. Quick, the train is coming.

Note that in French, indication of time can be at beginning or end of the sentence, there are
all equivalent sentences :

Je ne travaille pas le samedi. Il va au parc ce soir.

Le samedi je ne travaille pas. Ce soir, il va au parc.

Present tense in French means general truth , habits or current action. It is less accurate
than in English. So it could often lead to misunderstanding.

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  Future with aller: near future
Near future is used when a project or an event is accurate in time, for a change to come. It
helps to link with current situation. It is more used in oral expression. It is also better to use
near-future, because it is easy to identy as future, compared to present tense.
The verb Aller (to go) is then used as an auxiliary for near future :

aller + infinitive verb

To remind the verb aller ( to go ) :

je vais nous allons

tu vas vous allez
il, elle va ils, elles vont

With indication of time, it makes both sentences equivalent :

Ce soir, je nage.
Ce soir, je vais nager. I ‘m going to swim tonight.

Il travaille samedi.
Il va travailler samedi. He’s going to work on Saturday.

Without indication of time, it makes near future necessary to make a clear distinction
with present tense. The event to come is probable, but did not happen yet :

Je voyage au Canada I’m travelling to Canada.

Je vais voyager au Canada. I’m going to travel to Canada.

Nous regardons la television. We are watching TV

Nous allons regarder la television. We are going to watch TV.

Doucement, tu vas tomber. Easy, or you’re going to fall.

Negation: "pas" is right after auxiliary, before infinitive.

Il ne travaille pas ce soir.
Il ne va pas travailler ce soir

Questions :

Où manges tu ce soir ?
Où vas tu manger ce soir ? Where are you going to eat tonight ?

Où est-ce que tu vas manger ce soir ?

Quand vas-tu travailler ? When are you going to work ?

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The near future in French with aller is quite equivalent to Chinese with 要 :

你要買什麼東西？
Que vas-tu acheter ? What are you going to buy ?
Je vais acheter des souvenirs. I’m going to buy souvenirs.

3. Other indications of time and sum up :

bientôt soon
demain tomorrow
matin (m) morning
midi (m) noon
après-midi (m) afternoon
soir (m) evening
nuit (f) night

semaine (f) week

mois (m) month
année (f) year

ce/ cette … this … prochain/prochaine next

ce matin, this morning

ce soir tonight
cette nuit tonight
cette semaine this week la semaine prochaine next week
cette année this year l’année prochaine next year

To sum-up, to use near future : it is required to have in mind the conjugation of aller
in present tense and infinitive forms of verbs.

Complement of time + subject + aux. aller + infinitiv + complement

Ce soir, tu vas acheter des pommes.

L’année prochaine, je vais aller au Canada.
Bientôt il va avoir une voiture.
Demain après-midi, nous allons marcher à la montagne.
Ce lundi/Lundi je vais travailler chez moi.

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4. Exercises
1. Turn these sentences into near future :

Ex: Je visite Montréal. I'm visiting Montreal.

Je vais visiter Montréal. I'm going to visit Montreal.

J'achète une belle veste. I’m buying a pretty jacket.

__________________ I'm going to buy a pretty jacket.

Il travaille chez lui. He's working at home.

__________________ He's going to work at home.

Il cuisine ce soir. He's cooking tonight.

__________________ He's going to cook tonight.

Nous habitons au Canada. We're living in Canada.

__________________ We are going to live in Canada.

J’ai 30 ans. I am 30 years old.

__________________ I 'm going to be 30 years old.

Le train arrive. The train is coming.

_________________ The train is going to come.

Elle n'aime pas le gâteau. She doesn't like the cake.

_________________ She's not going to like the cake.

Il n'a pas assez de lait. He doesn't have enough milk.

____________________ He isn't going to have enough milk.

Elle a faim. She's hungry.

___________________ She's going to be hungry.

C'est trop petit. It is too short.

___________________ It is going to be too short.

2. Turn the sentences into negative :

Example :
Je vais aller au supermarché I am going to go the supermarket.
Je ne vais pas aller au supermarché.

Je vais en France la semaine prochaine. I am going to France next week.

________________________

J'ai sommeil. I am sleepy.

_________________________

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Il va avoir froid cette nuit. He's going to be cold tonight.
_________________________

Il va avoir assez d'eau. He's going to have enough water.

________________________

Tu vas avoir un café. You 're going to have a coffee.

___________________________

Le mois prochain, elle va en Italie. Next month, she's going to Italie.

__________________________

Je mange assez de pommes. I eat enough apples.

____________________

Tu es à Paris. You are in Paris.

___________

C'est français. This is French.

____________

Je vais à Londres. I 'm going to London.

________________

3. Translate the sentences form Chinese to French

Example :
你是法國人嗎 ？. Tu es français ?

不，我不是法國人。 ______________________________

我不餓。 ______________________________

這些番茄多少錢？ ______________________________

你 40 歲。 ______________________________

我明天下午去超市. ______________________________

我要買一些蘋果. ______________________________

我們住在巴黎。 ______________________________

你很喜歡這本書. ______________________________

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你有一支筆嗎？ ______________________________

他們是誰 ？ ______________________________

我和 Julie 喜歡看電視。______________________________

那是 Luc，他不喜歡跳舞. ______________________________

Rémi 在哪裡 ？ ______________________________

他們下个月去加拿大. _____________________________

我去 Julie 的家。 ______________________________

我不愛吃這個菜。 _____________________________

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5. Text : Je vais aller en Angleterre.

Rémi : Tu as des vacances cette semaine ?

Sophie: Non je travaille cette semaine. Je vais avoir des vacances la semaine prochaine.
Rémi : Est-ce que tu vas voyager ?
Sophie: Oui.

Rémi : Où ça ?
Sophie: Je vais aller en Angleterre.
Rém : Super ! Tu vas voyager en train ?

Sophie: Non il n’y a pas de train le lundi. Je vais aller en Angleterre en avion.
Rém: Tu vas voyager seule ?
Sophie: Non, je ne vais pas être seule. Anne ne travaille pas la semaine prochaine, on va voyager
ensemble.

Rémi: Qu’est-ce que vous allez visiter ?

Sophie: Le mardi, nous allons visiter Big Ben. Le mercredi, nous allons visiter le Palais de
Buckingham. Le vendredi, je vais acheter des souvenirs. Anne, elle, va marcher à Hyde park.
Rémi : C’est super, bonnes vacances !

Rémi: Do you have holiday this week?

Sophie: No I'm working this week. I'm going to have holiday next week.
Rémi: Are you going to travel?
Sophie: Yes.
Rémi: Where?
Sophie: I'm going to go to England.
Rémi: Great! Are you going to travel by train?
Sophie: No there is no train on Monday. I'm going to fly to England.
Rémi: Are you going to travel alone?
Sophie: No, I'm not going to be alone. Anne is not working next week, we are going to travel together.
Remi: What are you going to visit?
Sophie: On Tuesday we're going to visit Big Ben. On Wednesday we will visit Buckingham Palace. On
Friday, I'm going to buy souvenirs. Anne is going for a walk in Hyde Park.
Rémi: It's great, have a good holiday!

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 Vocabulary :
en train by train Angleterre (f) England Big Ben Big Ben
en avion by plane Londres London le Palais de Buckingham
Buckingham Palace
en voiture by car Hyde park Hyde park

vacances (f) holiday acheter to buy

souvenir (m) souvenir voyager to travel
où where marcher to walk
où ça where (for travailler to work
confirmation)
semaine (f) week visiter to visit
quand when

prochain next bonnes have a good

prochaine vacances holiday !,
enjoy your holiday!
seul/seule alone
ensemble together

6. More Grammar : Tenses in French , Future and Past

More than 10 tenses exist in French, some of them are only for high level in French,
or only used in written expression. There are 6 essential forms to use for common
expression. They consist in adding auxiliary with infinitive, participle or other forms of tenses :

past near-past present near-future future

imperfect
je marchais
j’ai marché
je viens de marcher
je marche
je vais marcher
simple past
je marcherai

Je vais marcher I'm going to walk.

Je marche I walk or I'm walking
Je viens de marcher I just walked
J'ai marché I 've walked

Je marcherai I will walk

Je marchais I walked

Note that sometimes tenses in French and English are not fully equivalent.

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