What is simple future tense? (with examples)

What is the future simple tense? (with examples)

The simple future tense is used for an action that will happen in the future. For example:

• John will bake a cake.
• They will paint the fence.

More Examples of Simple Future Tense

Here are some examples of the simple future tense (shaded):

• The Moscow State Circus will perform in Cheltenham next year.
• We will celebrate our anniversary by flying to New York.
• Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. (Author Og Mandino)
• What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. (Greek biographer Plutarch)

Forming the Simple Future Tense

The simple future is formed:
“will“+ [base form of the verb]

• She will play.
• Martin will paint.

The Negative Version

If you need the negative version, you can use the following word order:
“will not“+ base form of verb

• The Moscow State Circus will not perform in Cheltenham next year.
• We won’t celebrate our anniversary by flying to New York.
  (Note:“Will not“can be shortened to“won’t“in English.)

The Question Version

If you need to ask a question, you can use the following word order for a yes/no question:
“will“+ [subject] + base form of verb

• Will the Moscow State Circus perform in Cheltenham next year?
• Will we celebrate our anniversary by flying to New York?

Puede usar el siguiente orden de palabras para una pregunta de palabras interrogativas:
[question word] +“will“+ [subject] + base form of verb

• When will the Moscow State Circus perform in Cheltenham?
• How will we celebrate our anniversary in New York?

You can use the following word order for a choice question:
“will“+ [subject] + base form of verb + choice A + or + choice B

• Will the Moscow State Circus perform in Oxford or Cambridge?
• Will we celebrate our anniversary on Friday or Saturday?

Contractions with the Simple Future Tense

Note that in speech and writing (particularly informal writing), it is common for will to be shortened to ‘ll. This is especially common when will follows a personal pronoun (eg I, he, she).

• I will > I’ll
• he will > he’ll
• she will > she’ll
• it will > it’ll
  (This is not as common as the others.)
• you will > you’ll
• we will > we’ll
• they will > they’ll
• who will > who’ll
  (This is not as common as the others.)

Getting Some Emphasis in There

Tenga en cuenta que la voluntad se puede enfatizar para enfatizar. Por ejemplo:

• When will the cake be ready?
• I can tell you now. She will be accepted.
  (When looking for emphasis, you can’t use the shortened versions. In other words, you can’t use“she’ll“in this example if you want to stress the word“will“for emphasis.)

With the negative version, the“no“. As before, you cannot use the short version.

• I will not tolerate sloppy drills.
  (You can’t use“I’ll not“or“I won’t“if you want to stress the word“not“for emphasis.)

The Other Future Tenses

The simple future tense is one of the four future tenses. This table shows the four future tenses:

The 4 Future Tenses	Example
simple future tense	I will go
future progressive tense	I will be going
future perfect tense	I will have gone
future perfect progressive tense	I will have been going