Futuro Semplice (Future Tense)
The Futuro Semplice (Simple Future) is used to talk about actions that will happen in the future. In conversational Italian, the present tense often replaces the future tense for near-future events, making the Futuro Semplice slightly more formal or used for distinct future plans.
💡 Explain Like I'm 5
Instead of adding a new word like 'will' in English, Italian shows the future simply by changing the ending of the verb. 'I eat' becomes 'I will eat' just by swapping the final letters.
When to Use It
Future projects/plans: L'anno prossimo andrò in Italia (Next year I will go to Italy).
Predictions and promises: Pioverà domani (It will rain tomorrow).
Conjectures or doubts in the present: Che ore sono? Saranno le tre (What time is it? It must be three/It will be around three).
Regular Verbs
To form the Futuro Semplice for regular verbs, drop the final -e of the infinitive and add the future endings. Notice that for -are verbs, the characteristic 'a' changes to an 'e' (parlare → parlerò).
| Pronoun | -are (parlare) | -ere (credere) | -ire (dormire) |
|---|---|---|---|
| io | parlerò | crederò | dormirò |
| tu | parlerai | crederai | dormirai |
| lui/lei | parlerà | crederà | dormirà |
| noi | parleremo | crederemo | dormiremo |
| voi | parlerete | crederete | dormirete |
| loro | parleranno | crederanno | dormiranno |
Irregular Verbs
Many common verbs have an irregular stem in the future tense, but they all use the exact same endings (-ò, -ai, -à, -emo, -ete, -anno).
| Infinitive | Future Stem | Io form | Lui/Lei form |
|---|---|---|---|
| essere (to be) | sar- | sarò | sarà |
| avere (to have) | avr- | avrò | avrà |
| andare (to go) | andr- | andrò | andrà |
| fare (to do) | far- | farò | farà |
| vedere (to see) | vedr- | vedrò | vedrà |
| venire (to come) | verr- | verrò | verrà |
| volere (to want) | vorr- | vorrò | vorrà |
Spelling Changes ⚠️
Verbs ending in -care and -gare add an h to keep the hard sound: cercare → cercherò.
Verbs ending in -ciare and -giare drop the i: mangiare → mangerò, cominciare → comincerò.
Tips for Learning
The endings for io, tu, lui/lei, and loro are derived from the present tense of avere (ho, hai, ha, hanno).
Notice the accents! The 'io' (-ò) and 'lui/lei' (-à) forms always have written accents on the final vowel.
-are and -ere verbs have identical endings in the future tense (both use the 'e' vowel).
In spoken Italian, you can often just use the present tense with a future time word (Domani vado a Roma = Tomorrow I go to Rome).