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In
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...
, a future tense ( abbreviated ) is a
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
''aimera'', meaning "will love", derived from the verb ''aimer'' ("love"). The "future" expressed by the future tense usually means the future relative to the moment of speaking, although in contexts where
relative tense Relative tense and absolute tense are distinct possible uses of the grammatical category of tense. Absolute tense means the grammatical expression of time reference (usually past, present or future) relative to "now" – the moment of speaking. ...
is used it may mean the future relative to some other point in time under consideration.
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
does not have an
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
al future tense, though it has a variety of grammatical and lexical means for expressing future-related meanings. These include modal auxiliaries such as ''will'' and ''shall'' as well as the futurate
present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
.


Expressions

The nature of the future, necessarily uncertain and at varying distances ahead, means that the speaker may refer to future events with the
modality Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
either of probability (what the speaker expects to happen) or intent (what the speaker plans to make happen). Östen Dahl, ''Tense and Aspect Systems'', Blackwell, 1985, pp. 105-106. Whether future expression is
realis A realis mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most ...
or
irrealis In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...
depends not so much on an objective ontological notion of future reality, but rather on the degree of the speaker's conviction that the event will in fact come about. In many languages there is no grammatical ( morphological or syntactic) indication of future tense. Future meaning is supplied by the context, with the use of temporal adverbs such as "later", "next year", etc. Such adverbs (in particular words meaning "tomorrow" and "then") sometimes develop into grammaticalized future tense markers. (A tense used to refer specifically to occurrences taking place on the following day is called a
crastinal tense A crastinal tense (abbreviated ) is a future tense applied to a following or subsequent day. (''Crāstinō diē'' is the Latin for 'tomorrow'.) Crastinal tense refers to an event which will occur tomorrow (in an absolute tense system) or the follo ...
.) In other languages, mostly of European origin, specific markers indicate futurity. These structures constitute a ''future tense''. In many cases, an auxiliary verb is used, as in English, where futurity is often indicated by the
modal auxiliary A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
''will'' (or ''shall''). However, some languages combine such an auxiliary with the main verb to produce a simple (one-word, morphological) future tense. This is the origin of the future tense in Western
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
such as French and Italian (see
below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname *Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general *Fred Below ...
). A given language may have more than one way to express futurity. English, for example, often refers to future events using
present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
forms or other structures such as the ''going-to'' future, besides the canonical form with ''will/shall''. In addition, the verb forms used for the future tense can also be used to express other types of meaning; English again provides examples of this (see English modal verbs for the various meanings that both ''will'' and ''shall'' can have besides simply expressing futurity).


Germanic languages

In
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...
, including
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, a common expression of the future is using the
present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
, 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 language strongly future-tense-marking. 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. The ''will/shall'' future consists of the modal verb ''will'' or ''shall'' together with the bare
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
of the main verb, as in "He will win easily" or "I shall do it when time permits". ( Prescriptive grammarians prefer ''will'' in the second and third persons and ''shall'' in the first person, reversing the forms to express obligation or determination, but in practice ''shall'' and ''will'' are generally used interchangeably,Usage notes on "shall" in New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999 Oxford University Press 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 Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
in addition to futurity (as in "He will make rude remarks", meaning he has a habit of doing so, or, "You shall act on my behalf", 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: *
Present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
forms, as in "The train leaves at five," or, "My cousins 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 clause A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
s 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 The present continuous, also called the present progressive or present imperfect, is a verb form used in modern English that combines the present tense with the continuous aspect. It is formed by the present tense form of be and the present part ...
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 A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
with future meaning, to combine the expression of future time with certain
modality Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
: "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 Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
(the attitude of the speaker toward the action or state).Fleischman, Suzanne, ''The Future in Thought and Language'', Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982: pp. 18-19, 86-89, and 95-97. 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 In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
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

The future tense forms in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
varied by conjugation. Here is a sample of the future tense for the first conjugation verb ''amare'', "to love". See
Latin conjugation In terms of linguistics and grammar, conjugation has two basic meanings. One meaning is the creation of derived forms of a verb from basic forms, or principal parts. It may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood, aspect, voice, or ...
for further details. Sound changes in
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
made future forms difficult to distinguish from other verb forms (e.g., ''amabit'' "he will love" vs. ''amavit'' "he loved"), and the Latin simple future forms were gradually replaced by periphrastic structures involving the infinitive and an auxiliary verb, such as ''debere'', ''venire'', ''velle'', or especially ''habere''. All of the modern
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
have
grammaticalized In historical linguistics, grammaticalization (also known as grammatization or grammaticization) is a process of language change by which words representing objects and actions (i.e. nouns and verbs) become grammatical markers (such as affixes or ...
one of these periphrastic constructions for expressing the future tense; none of them has preserved the original Latin future, with the exception of
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
preserving the original Latin future forms of ''estre'' "to be": ''jo (i)er'', ''tu (i)ers'', ''il (i)ert'', ''nos (i)ermes'', ''vos *(i)ertes'', and ''il (i)erent'', all of them were derived from ''erō'', irregular future form of ''esse'' "to be", in addition to future forms in ''ser-'' (< ''sedēre'' "to sit") or ''estr-''.


Future tense with ''habere''

While Classical Latin used a set of suffixes to the main verb for the future tense, later
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
adopted the use of ''habere'' ("to have") with the infinitive, as for example: ''petant aut non petant venire habet'' ("whether they ask or do not ask, it will come") From this construction, the major Western Romance languages have simple future tense forms that derive from the infinitive followed by a conjugated form of the verb "to have" (Latin ''habere''). As the auxiliary verb lost its modal force (from a verb expressing obligation, desire, or intention, to a simple marker of tense), it also lost syntactic autonomy (becoming an
enclitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
) and phonological substance (e.g., Latin first singular ''habeo'' > ''ayyo'' >
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
''ai'', Modern French ). Thus the sequence of Latin verbs ''amare habeo'' ("I have to love") gave rise to French ''aimerai'', Spanish ''amaré'', etc. "I will love". Phonetic changes also affected the infinitive in the evolution of this form, so that in the modern languages the future stem is not always identical to the infinitive. Consider the following Spanish examples: * "go out": infinitive ''salir'' → 1st. sing. future ''saldré'' in lieu of *''saliré'' * "know": infinitive ''saber'' → 2nd. sing future "sabrás" in lieu of *''saberás'' * "do": infinitive ''hacer'' → 3rd sing. future ''hará'' in lieu of *''hacerá'' * "want": infinitive ''querer'' → 3rd pl. future ''querrán'' in lieu of *''quererán''


Indo-Aryan languages


Hindi

In
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, verbs can be conjugated for three grammatical aspects ( habitual, perfective, and progressive) and five grammatical moods ( indicative, presumptive, subjunctive, contrafactual, and imperative). Out of the three aspects, the habitual mood of Hindi cannot be conjugated into the future tense. The indicative future is constructed from the subjunctive future forms. Imperatives in Hindi can also be put into future tense.


Indicative and Subjunctive future

There are two future subjunctive moods in modern
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, first the regular subjunctive and the second, the perfective subjunctive which superficially has the same form as the perfective aspect forms of verbs but still expresses future events, it is used with if clauses and relative clauses. In a semantic analysis, this use of the perfective aspect marker would not be considered perfective, since it is more closely related to subjunctive usage. Only the superficial form is identical to that of the perfective. This perfective subjunctive cannot be used as a coupla for aspectual participles. The future indicative forms are constructed using the future subjunctive forms of verbs by adding the future suffix गा (-''gā'') which declines for number and gender of the grammatical person. The table below shows the future subjunctive and indicative forms of the verb करना ''karnā'' (to do).


Prospective future

The prospective future is constructed using the prospective future participle which is constructed from the oblique infinitive by adding the suffix वाला (-''vālā'') which also declines for the number and the gender of the pronoun. The participle is always followed by the auxiliary verb होना (''honā)'' in its conjugated forms. The copula होना (''honā)'' can be put into four grammatical moods: indicative, presumptive, subjunctive, and contrafactual. The table below shows the indicative mood forms of the prospective future for the verb करना ''karnā'' (to do).


Imperative future

Imperatives in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
can be conjugated into two tenses, present and future tense. The conjugations are mentioned in the table below for the verb करना ''karnā'' (to do). Hindi also has imperatives forms which are constructed form the subjunctive form of the verbs for the formal 2nd person pronoun आप (āp), and also third person pronouns to give indirect commands.


Semitic languages


Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew has a distinction between past and future tenses which is similar in form to those used in other Semitic languages such as
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
. Gesenius refers to the past and future verb forms as Perfect and Imperfect, respectively, separating completed action from uncompleted action. However, the usage of verbs in these forms does not always have the same temporal meaning as in Indo-European languages, mainly due to the common use of a construct of inverting the time reference with a prefix "Waw consecutive" (ו' ההיפוך). With this construct, the Perfect-consecutive refers to the future and the Imperfect-consecutive refers to the past. Usage of the imperfect to discuss future events is somewhat uncommon in Biblical Hebrew, as the Bible mainly discusses past events. It can be found in quoted speech, such as in the words of Moses (imperfect verbs stressed): The Perfect-consecutive is commonly found in prophetic text, describing an unspecified future, as in the Book of Isaiah:
Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...
always employs the imperfect as the future tense (and the perfect as the past tense). The usage of "Waw consecutive" has practically disappeared, except for quotes from the Bible and Poetic language.


Arabic

To form future tense in
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
the prefix (سـ) "sa" is added to the present tense verb, or (سوف) "sawfa". For example, consider the sentence: To express the future we have two ways:
written as part of the verb written as a
Clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
to indicate the future but preceding the verb
In Classical Arabic the latter indicates an individual future action that usually takes place further in the future than the first mentioned form, which is usually used with verbs that relate to other actions, and mostly referring to rather near future actions. However, in
Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...
(MSA) the distinction is minimal. Moreover, the indication of the future tense in
dialectal Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variat ...
is quite varied from one dialect to the next. Generally speaking, the words meaning "want to" (بدي / أريد أن), "go to" (أروح), "intend to"(ناوي /نويت), and many others are used daily to indicate future actions. In
Moroccan Arabic Moroccan Arabic ( ar, العربية المغربية الدارجة, translit=al-ʻArabīya al-Maghribīya ad-Dārija ), also known as Darija (), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghre ...
, the word "Ghad" (غاد) is used to indicate future, which literally means "there" (or there is to happen), that is in some way similar to the English formation "there I go.."


Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
has no grammatical tense, instead indicating time of action from the context or using adverbs. However, the auxiliary verb 會 / - ''huì'' / ㄏㄨㄟˋ, a modal meaning "can", "know how", can alternatively indicate futurity.Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca, ''The Evolution of Grammar'', Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994. For lexical futurity, the word ''yào'', which can serve as a verb meaning "to want", can also serve as an adverb meaning "immediately":Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thomson, ''Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar'', 1989. For example, ''wǒ yào xǐzǎo'' can mean either "I want to bathe" or "I am about to bathe". 即 ''jí''、將 ''jiāng'' serve a similar function as tense-marking adverbs.


Creoles

Creoles are languages with a vocabulary heavily based on a superstrate language but a grammar based on substrate languages and/or universal language tendencies. Some Creoles model a future tense/ irrealis mood marker on "go" from the superstrate (analogous to English "am going to").Holm, John, ''An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles'', Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000. In many creoles the future can be indicated with the progressive aspect, analogous to the English "I'm seeing him tomorrow." In general creoles tend to put less emphasis on marking tense than on marking aspect. When any of tense, aspect, and modality are specified, they are typically indicated with invariant pre-verbal markers in the sequence anterior relative tense (prior to the time focused on), irrealis mode (conditional or future), imperfective aspect.


Jamaican English Creole

The future marker in Jamaican Creole is /de go/ or /a go/: /de go hapm/ "is going to happen", /mi a go ɹon/ "I am going to run".


Belizean Creole English

In
Belizean Creole Belizean Creole (Belizean Creole: ''Belize Kriol'', ''Kriol'') is an English-based creole language spoken by the Belizean Creole people. It is closely related to Miskito Coastal Creole, San Andrés-Providencia Creole, and Jamaican Patois ( Li ...
, the future tense is indicated by a mandatory invariant pre-verbal particle /(w)a(n)/, /gwein/, or /gouɲ/.


Gullah

In Gullah the future is indicated by the pre-verbal marker ''gwine'': ''Uh gwine he'p dem'' "I'm going to help them".


Hawaiian Creole English

In
Hawaiian Creole Hawaiian Pidgin (alternately, Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE, known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a seco ...
, the pre-verbal future marker is ''gon'': ''Ai gon bai wan pikap'' "I'm going to buy a pickup".


Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole, based on a French superstrate, interchangeably uses ''pral'' or ''va'' (from French 3rd person singular ''va'' "goes") pre-verbally to indicate the future:Turnbull, Wally R., ''Creole Made Easy'', Light Messages, 2000, p. 13. ''Mwen va fini'' lit. "I go finish"; ''Li pral vini jodi a'' "He will come today".


References


External links


4 Future Tenses ExplainedEnglish Grammar Reference and Exercises
{{Use dmy dates, date=February 2020 Tense Grammatical tenses