Giáo trình động từ tiếng Pháp - Part II Using Verbs Correctly with Questions, Commands, and

Chapter 9

Looking Forward and Back:

The Immediate Future and Past

In This Chapter

Forming the immediate future

Forming the immediate past

Using prepositions with verbs of coming and going

The two types of future tense are the simple future, which I discuss in Chapter 15, and the

immediate future, which I talk about in this chapter. Although the two types of future

tenses can be and are used interchangeably, you use the immediate future to express some￾thing that you’re going to do pretty soon in the future, as the name indicates. Similarly to the

immediate future, the immediate past expresses actions that you’ve just done. For example,

I have just taken a test or She has just eaten. In this chapter, I show you how to form the

immediate future and the immediate past.

Creating the Immediate Future Tense

In order to form the immediate future, conjugate the verb aller (to go) in the present tense

and add the infinitive of a verb of your choice. Because aller is an irregular verb, check out

the following conjugations in the present tense to refresh your memory.

aller (to go)

je vais nous allons

tu vas vous allez

il/elle/on va ils/elles vont

Now add an infinitive to form the immediate future. The following examples show you how

to do it.

Je vais lire. (I’m going to read.)

Nous allons sortir. (We are going to go out.)

To construct the immediate future with pronominal verbs, place the pronominal pronoun,

which agrees with the subject, before the infinitive.

Je vais me promener dans le parc. (I’m going to walk in the park.)

Elle va se reposer. (She is going to rest.)

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