Grammar: Future Simple, irregular

ByFast French

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

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