Grammar: Future Simple, irregular

The Future Simple tense of regular verbs was covered in a previous post here. That post explained how to find the future simple stem of a regular -er, -ir or -re verb, as well as the appropriate future simple endings.

This post, however, is a list of the most important verbs whose future simple stems do not follow the rules of regular future simple stems. These tend to be more frequently used verbs. So it is important to get to know their future simple stems. Not only so that you can form the future simple tense, but also so that you can form the Present Conditional Tense. That’s because the Present Conditional uses the future simple stem as its own stem.

Frequently used verbs: irregular future simple stems

VERBMEANINGSTEMEXAMPLE
êtreto beser-je serai
avoirto haveaur-j’aurai
allerto goir-j’irai
faireto do, to makefer-je ferai
venirto comeviendr-je viendrai
devoirto have to, mustdevr-je devrai
vouloirto wantvoudr-je voudrai
pouvoirto be able, canpourr-je pourrai
savoirto know (how)saur-je saurai
voirto seeverr-je verrai

Infrequently used verbs: irregular future simple stems

VERBMEANINGSTEMEXAMPLE
acquérir to acquireacquerrj’acquerrai
courir to runcourr-je courrai
cueillirto gathercueiller-je cueillerai
décevoirto deceiveto décevr-je décevrai
envoyerto sendenverr-j’enverrai
falloirto be necessaryfaudr-il faudra
pleuvoirto rainpleuvr-il pleuvra
recevoirto receiverecevr-je recevrai
tenirto hold, keeptiendr-je tiendrai
valoirto be worthvaudr-il vaudra

Don’t miss out on new posts – subscribe now!

Don’t miss new articles!

Get 1 email a week with new articles about French

We don’t spam! Read more in our privacy policy

Similar Posts

  • verb: toucher

    The French verb “toucher” has a few different meanings. Not all of them are obvious. It can mean “to touch,” “to hit,” “to affect,” “to be next to,” “to get,” “to receive,” or “to win.” “Le toucher” is also a masculine noun meaning “the touch” or “the sense of touch.” to touch to hit to…

  • verb: marcher

    The French verb “marcher” has a variety of meanings, including “to walk,” “to function,” “to work,” “to tread,” “to go,” “to go for it,” and even “to fall for it.” To walk To tread To go To work, to function To go for it To fall for it Expressions

  • guérir

    The French verb “guérir” means “to heal,” “to cure,” “to recover” or “to cure oneself.” It can be used in three different ways: transitively, intransitively and reflexively. Let’s see what that means below. Transitive Used transitively, “guérir” means “to cure” someone of something. Transitive means that the verb “guérir” will have a direct object, which…

  • venir

    The French verb “venir” means “to come.” It is one of the most frequently used verbs in the French language. Present Tense (Présent) Future Tense (Futur Simple) Passé Composé In the passé composé, the verb “venir” uses “être” as the auxiliary verb, and the past participle “venu” agrees in gender and number with the subject.

  • voir

    The French verb “voir” primarily means “to see.” It can be used in various contexts and expressions, such as: Present Tense Pronoun Conjugation Je vois Tu vois Il/Elle voit Nous voyons Vous voyez Ils/Elles voient Passé Composé Pronoun Conjugation J’ ai vu Tu as vu Il/Elle a vu Nous avons vu Vous avez vu Ils/Elles…

  • | |

    Devant

    The French word “devant” can be used as a preposition, as an adverb, or as a noun. Preposition As a preposition, “devant” means “in front of,” “ahead of” or “before.” Adverb As an adverb, “devant” means “in front,” “at the front,” or “ahead.” Noun As a masculine noun, “le devant” means “the front.”