Future tense in Italian

What is the Future Tense and when should you use it?

The future tense in Italian has 2 variations: simple future and future perfect. However, it’s the simple future that is most commonly used, and often the tense referred to as being the future tense.

The simple future is used to talk about events that will happen in the future, for example: next month I will go to Spain or next year I’ll start a new job.

NOTE: Like in English, in spoken language the present tense is often used in place of the future, especially to talk about something which is imminent or will happen in the near future, like: tomorrow I’m going to the beach or next week my friend will come to visit me.

How to make the future tense in Italian

In English you make the future tense by putting will before the verb.

In Italian, it’s the ending that changes. The simple future is formed by dropping the ending of the infinitive (are, ere or ire) and adding the following endings:

The chart above shows the simple future conjugations for the Italian regular verbs, whereas the irregular verbs follow a slightly different pattern, for example:

Some exceptions:

Verbs ending in -ciare/giare drop the -i in the simple future:

Verbs ending in -care/-gare add an -h in the simple future:

Examples

La settimana prossima andrò in vacanza. Next week I’m going on holiday.

Quando ti vedrò, ti darò il mio regalo. When I see you, I’ll give you my present.

Mia mamma inizierà un nuovo lavoro a maggio. My Mum will start a new job in May.

I suoi amici compreranno una casa l’anno prossimo. His friends will buy a house next year.