Future Tense Verbs: What Is the Future Tense?

Most fluent writers and speakers of American English have little trouble distinguishing past tense from present tense verbs. For example:

I practice my grammar daily implies something’s happening right now.

I practiced my grammar every day indicates the action has already taken place.

But what if you want to write about something that’s going to happen tomorrow or even later? That’s where future tense verbs come in.

How to Create Future Tense Verbs

The easiest way to express a future action in a grammatically correct way is to add the word will to a verb. For instance, building on the example above, you could write:

I will practice my grammar every day when I wake up.

This suggests something that will occur at a forthcoming time. Here are a few more examples:

I will feed Tony’s fish while he’s away.

After work he will be at the coffee shop.

Sarah will start a new schedule next week.

These verb constructions tell us what’s going to happen as opposed to what is happening or has happened.

The future tense can also take other forms.

The Different Types of Future Tense Verbs

The examples above include the word will plus the main verb. This is the simple future tense. Let’s look at each future tense along with an example:

Simple future tense: I will see my mother.
This describes something that will happen in the future.

Future progressive tense: I will be seeing my mother.
This communicates something that will be continuous or in progress in the future.

Future perfect tense: I will have seen my mother.
This sentence refers to an action that will have been completed (i.e., will be the past tense) at a point in the future.

Future perfect progressive tense: By Christmas, I will have been visiting my mother almost every day in December.
This describes a continuous action that will have been completed at a point in the future.

The main objective in daily formal communication is to be clear and precise. For that reason, aim to be familiar and consistent with your future verb tenses as you continue developing your grammar skills. If you ever find yourself struggling with certain types of phrasing for actions in the future, keep using the verbs you are comfortable with and commit to a greater understanding of the different future forms.

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