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Bonjour! Today we will learn a super easy way to talk about your upcoming plans in French using the near future tense.
The near future tense, or 'le futur proche', is used to talk about actions that are going to happen soon. In English, we say 'I am going to eat' or 'they are going to study'. It is one of the most useful tenses in French because it is so simple to build.
To build this tense, you only need two parts. First, you conjugate the verb 'aller' (to go) in the present tense to match your subject. Second, you just add the action verb in its original, unchanged form, which we call the infinitive.
Let us analyze a concrete case. If you want to say 'We are going to play', you must first find the pronoun for 'we', which is 'nous'. Next, conjugate 'aller' for 'nous' to get 'allons'. Finally, find the infinitive for 'to play', which is 'jouer'. Putting them together gives you 'Nous allons jouer'.
Translate this sentence into French using the near future tense: 'She is going to finish her homework.'
- Identify the subject pronoun. 'She' in French is 'elle'.
- Conjugate the helping verb 'aller' to match the subject 'elle'. The correct form is 'va'.
- Identify the main action verb in its infinitive form. 'To finish' in French is 'finir'.
- Translate the remaining details. 'Her homework' is 'ses devoirs'.
- Assemble all the parts in order: Subject + conjugated 'aller' + infinitive + details. This gives us: 'Elle va finir ses devoirs.'
