Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Article Talk
Future tense
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contents [hide]
1 Expressions of future tense
2 Germanic Languages
2.1 English
2.1.1 Main forms of future implication
2.1.1.1 Summary of forms
Contact Wikipedia
Toolbox
2.1.3 Relation among tense, aspect, and modality implications of "will" and "going to"
2.1.4 Further aspect/tense constructions implying futurity
Print/export
Languages
Brezhoneg
Deutsch
Espaol
Latina
Nederlands
Bahasa Indonesia
Norsk (nynorsk)
Polski
Suomi
Svenska
Trke
[edit]
The concept of the future, necessarily uncertain and at varying distances ahead, means that the speaker
may express the future in terms of probability or intent; the modality of intention is usually but not
always present when a future construction is used.[1]:pp. 105-106 Whether future expression is realis or
irrealis depends not on any objective, ontological notion of future reality, but rather on the speaker's
conviction that the predicted event will at some future moment constitute reality. [2]:p.20
In many languages there is no morphological or syntactic indication of future tense. Future meaning is
supplied by the context, with the use of temporal adverbs such as "later", or "next year", etc. Such
adverbs (in particular words meaning "tomorrow" and "then") can also develop into grammaticalized future
tense markers.
In other languages, mostly languages of European origin, specific markers are used to indicate futurity. It
is these structures which constitute the use of a "future tense." In many cases, an auxiliary verb is used.
The auxiliary+verb sequence is typical of English, where "I will" or "I shall" is followed by the verb root.
The auxiliary verb may also be combined with the verb root into a single word form, leading to reanalysis
as a simple (one-word) future tense. This is in fact the origin of the future tense in Western Romance
languages like Italian (see below). One significant deviation from this pattern, however, is to be found in
Portuguese: in that language, a direct object may separate the root verb, and its syntactical marker for
futurity ( as in, "eu darlhei," "I will give it"). This process can also go in the other direction.[3]
Thus, a given language may exhibit more than one strategy for expressing futurity. In addition, the verb
forms used for the future tense can also be used to express other types of meaning. For example, "will",
in English, may express direct volition as well as mark the future form of a verb. The auxiliary werden
"become" is used for both the future tense and the passive voice in German.
Germanic Languages
[edit]
In Germanic languages, including English, the usual expression of the future is using the present tense,
with the futurity expressed using words that imply future action (I go to Berlin tomorrow or I am going to
Berlin tomorrow.). There is no simple future tense as such.
However, the languages of the Germanic family can also express the future by employing an auxiliary
construction that combines certain present tense verbs with the simple infinitive (stem) of the verb which
represents the true action of the sentence. These auxiliary forms vary between the languages.
Other, generally more informal, expressions of futurity use an auxiliary with the compound infinitive of the
main verb.
English
[edit]
English does not have a dedicated future tense that is, a grammatical form that, when used, always
indicates futurity nor does it have a form that is mandatory for the expression of futurity. However,
some forms are often used to express futurity.
[edit]
The most common auxiliary verbs used to express futurity are will and shall.
Prescriptive grammarians distinguish between these, preferring to express the simple future as will in the
second and third persons and shall in the first person, and preferring to express obligation or
determination in the opposite cases. However, in modern English worldwide, shall and will are generally
used interchangeably, [4] with will being more common. See also shall and will.
Other periphrastic forms for the future include:
to be going to + Verb, e.g. John is going to leave tonight.
to be to + Verb, e.g. John is to leave tonight, which with the zero copula of newspaper headline style
becomes simply to + Verb, e.g. John to leave tonight.
A periphrastic form for the immediate future is
to be about to + Verb, e.g. John is about to leave (any minute).
A dialectical form in Northern England is:
mun, derived from Old Norse, which implies obligation.
In all dialects of spoken English both shall and will are commonly elided into 'll (I'll go could be either "I
will go" or "I shall go") so that the differences between the two have been worn down.
English also uses must, should, can, may and might in a similar way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
Must expresses the highest degree of obligation and commitment (I / you must go) and is temporally
nearest to present time in its expression of futurity ("I must go now.")
Should (the subjunctive form of shall in this context) implies obligation or commitment to the action
contemplated.
Can implies the ability to commit the action but does not presuppose obligation or firm commitment to
the action.
May expresses a relatively low sense of commitment (I may go) and is the most permissive (You
may go); it can also suggest conditionality (I may go [if I have time]).
Might expresses a very low sense of commitment or obligation (I / you might go if I / you feel like it).
English often employs the simple non-past (base form or base form + s in the third person singular) to
convey scheduled futurity, as in tomorrow I leave at 5:00.
The simple non-past form is mandatory for expressing the future in a dependent clause when the main
clause uses will, shall, or (be) going to: I will see you when I get there (not ...when I will get there); If
you build it they will come (not If you will build it...); she will not know that I am there (not ...that I will
be there).
Summary of forms
[edit]
I will/shall go
I'm going to go / I am going to go
I'm to go / I am to go
I'm about to go / I am about to go
I must go
I should go
I can go
I may go
I might go
I go
To express futurity in the negative, a negative adverb such as not or never is inserted before the main
verb (or the suffix -n't is added to the auxiliary), as in all other auxiliary constructions:
I will/shall not go.....I won't/shan't go.....Will/shall I not go?.....Won't/shan't I go?
He's not going to go / He is not going to go.....Is he not going to go?.....Isn't he going to go?
He's not to go / He is not to go.....Is he not to go?.....Isn't he to go?
He's not about to go / He is not about to go.....Is he not about to go?.....Isn't he about to go?
I must not go.....I mustn't go.....Must I not go?.....Mustn't I go?
I should not go.....I shouldn't go.....Should I not go?.....Shouldn't I go?
I cannot go (cannot is conventional rather than can not).....I can't go.....Can I not go?.....Can't I go?
He may never go.....May he never go?
I might not go.....I mightn't go.....Might I not go?.....Mightn't I go?
In all of these, action within a future range of time is contemplated. However, in all cases, the sentences
are actually voiced in the present tense, since there is no proper future tense in English. It is the
implication of futurity that makes these present tense auxiliary constructions amount to a compound
future quasi-tense.
[edit]
The construction am/is/are going to + VERB (and its shortened form am/is/are gonna + VERB) can either
imply or fail to imply imminence of the action, [2] and the intended implication must be decided from the
context. For example, It's going to rain would be interpreted as implying imminence, whereas I'm going to
visit Paris someday would not. Therefore, the forms am/is/are going to + VERB and will + VERB cannot
be conceptually distinguished on the basis of degree of imminence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
[edit]
[edit]
Additional auxiliary constructions used to express futurity in combination with the aspects perfect,
habitual, and/or continuous are labelled as follows:
Future Continuous: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Present Participle
I shall/will be going
You will be singing
He will be sleeping
We may be coming
They may be travelling
It will be snowing when Nancy arrives
It will not be raining when Josie leaves
Future Perfect: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle
I shall/will be gone
You will have sung
He will have slept
We may have come (We may be come can still be used poetically, but it is obsolete in speech)
They may have travelled
It will have snowed
It will not have rained; It won't have rained
Future Perfect Habitual (or Future Perfect Continuous): Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle + Present
Participle
I shall/will have been going
You will have been singing
He will have been sleeping
We may have been coming
They may have been travelling
It will have been snowing
It will not have been raining
[edit]
The time of perspective of the English future can be shifted from the present to the past by replacing will
with its past tense form would, thus effectively creating a "future of the past" construction in which the
indicated event or situation occurs after the past time of perspective: In 1982, I knew that I would
graduate in 1986.
German
[edit]
Dutch
[edit]
[edit]
Icelandic descends from Old Norse and indeed is scarcely changed from it in the written form. Icelandic
uses the auxiliaries:
munu expressing a probable future
skulu (shall) implying obligation or determination.
It is believed that in Old Norse munu expressed the pure future, skulu (shall) expressed obligation or
determination as it still does, and a third auxiliary, vilja ("will"), expressed will or intent.
A common auxiliary expression of the future, which takes the compound infinitive, is:
tla expressing intention.
(So "g tla a koma"; I will come)
Norwegian
[edit]
Danish
[edit]
In Danish the future is usually unmarked, using the present tense form. Sometimes the modals vil
("want") and skal ("must") are used instead to indicate futurity, and sometimes blive "become" can have
the meaning "will be". The following distinctions illustrate some of their uses:
Det vil aldrig ske "That will never happen" (a prediction) but Det skal ej ske "That shall not happen" (a
promise).
Hvad skal du i aften? "What will you (do) tonight?"; Jeg skal besge mine forldre i weekenden "I will
visit my parents this weekend"; Skal du hjem nu? "Will you go (are you going) home now?".
Han vil hentes "He wants to_be_picked_up"; Han skal hentes "He must be_picked_up". Han vil blive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
hentet "He will become (be) picked_up (it's already arranged)", but Han skal blive hentet "He will become
(be) picked_up (I promise)".
Jeg skal til fdselsdag i morgen "I will (go) to (a) birthday_party tomorrow". Det bliver sjov "That
becomes (will be) fun". Vi bliver 15 "We become (will be) 15 (there will be fifteen of us)". Han bliver 40
"He becomes (will be) 40".
Swedish
[edit]
Swedish [1]:pp.107-108 skall strongly implies intention, but with an adverb such as nog "probably" it can
avoid the implication of intentionality: Det hr skall nog g bra "This here will probably go well". However,
the past tense of skall, skulle, can be used without such an adverb to express predictions in the past:
Pelle sa, att det skulle bli varmt p eftermiddagen "Pelle said that it would be warm in the afternoon."
[edit]
The future tense forms in Latin varied by conjugation. Here is a sample of the future tense for the first
conjugation verb 'amare', 'to love'.
amabo
amabis
amabit
amabunt
See Latin conjugation for further details. Sound changes in Vulgar Latin made future forms difficult to
distinguish from other verb forms (e.g. amabit "he will love" vs. amavit "he loved"), and the Latin simple
future forms were gradually replaced by periphrastic structures involving the infinitive and an auxiliary
verb, such as debere, venire, velle, and especially habere. All of the modern Romance languages have
grammaticalized one of these periphrastic constructions for expressing the future tense; none of them has
preserved the original Latin future.
[edit]
While Classical Latin used a set of suffixes to the main verb for the future tense, later Vulgar Latin
adopted the use of habere (to have) with the infinitive, as for example:
petant aut petant venire habet [8] ("whether they ask or do not ask, it will come")
From this construction, the major Western Romance languages have simple future tense forms that
derive from the infinitive followed by a conjugated form of the verb "to have" (Latin habere). As the
auxiliary verb lost its modal force (from a verb expressing obligation, desire, or intention, to a simple
marker of tense), it also lost syntactic autonomy (becoming an enclitic) and phonological substance (e.g.
Latin 1st sing. habeo > ayyo > Old French ai, Modern French [e]). Thus the sequence of Latin verbs
amare habeo ("I have to love") gave rise to French aimerai, Spanish amar, etc. "I will love". [9][10]
Phonetic changes also affected the infinitive in the evolution of this form, so that in the modern
languages the future stem is not always identical to the infinitive. Consider the following Spanish
examples:
"go out": infinitive salir 3rd sing. future saldr (not *salir)
"do": infinitive hacer 3rd sing. future har (not *hacer)
See the grammar articles for the individual languages for more details about verb conjugation.
Romanian
[edit]
Romanian, although a Romance language, patterns like Balkan languages such as Greek and SerboCroatian (cf. Balkan sprachbund) in that it uses reflexes of the verb vrea (to want):
"love": infinitive a iubi 3rd sing. future va iubi
Romanian also forms a future tense from the subjunctive, with a preceding particle, o, also derived from
vrea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
"love": infinitive a iubi 3rd sing. future o s iubeasc (lit. (want) that he love)
Portuguese
[edit]
In Portuguese, the simple future, called "futuro do presente", is quite similar to Spanish. However, in the
informal Brazilian Portuguese, the future may also be formed with the auxiliary verb "ir" (to go) in the
simple present and with the main verb in the infinitive (vou cantar, vou bater, etc.).
cantar
bater
partir
pr
eu
cantarei
baterei
partirei
porei
tu
cantars
baters
partirs
pors
ele/voc
cantar
bater
partir
por
ns
vs
cantareis
batereis
partireis
poreis
eles/vocs cantaro
batero
partiro
poro
Celtic languages
[edit]
Scottish Gaelic
[edit]
In Scottish Gaelic, the future tense is formed in regular verbs by adding aidh or idh to the end of the
root form of the verb (idh is used if the final vowel in the root is i).
Danns. (dance.) -> Dannsaidh mi. (I will dance.)
Cuir. (put.) -> Cuiridh i. (She will put.)
Inserting cha before the root forms the negative. The initial consonant of the root is lenited where
possible, except for d, t or s which in certain cases is not lenited. Chan is substituted if the root begins
with a vowel or an f followed by a vowel, which is also lenited.
Cha tid mi... (I will not go...)
Chan fheuch am peasan sin idir. (That brat will not try at all.)
In the interrogative, an is placed before the root of the verb. If the root begins with b, f, m, or p, am is
used instead.
An ith thu sin? (Will you eat that?)
Am pg thu i? (Will you kiss her?)
As in English, some forms are irregular - mostly common verbs. For example, the root for the word "to
see" is faic, but the positive future tense form "will see" is ch.
The copula is bidh (will be), cha bhi (will not be), am bi (interrogative), and nach bi (negative
interrogative).
Bidh mi a' tighinn! (I shall be coming!)
Cha bhi e an seo a-mireach. (He will not be here tomorrow.)
Am bi thu air falbh as t-samhradh? (Will you be away this summer?)
Nach bi sibh a' fuireach airson a' bhdh? (Will not you be staying for the food, sir?)
The linking verb (that will be) is gum bi (positive) or nach bi (negative).
Tha ise ag rdh gum bi esan a' dol. (She said that he will be going.)
Tha mi an dchas nach bi iad sgth. (I hope that they will not be tired.)
Irish
[edit]
In Irish, the future tense is formed two ways in regular verbs, depending on verb class. Class I verbs add
faidh or fidh to the end of the root form of the verb (fidh is used if the final vowel in the root is e or i).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
Welsh
[edit]
In Welsh, most verbal functions are expressed using constructions with bod (to be). The future may be
expressed in the same way using the future tense of bod.
Fe fydda i yn... (I will...)
Fe fyddi di yn... (thou wilt...)
Fe fydd e yn... (he will...) etc.
(in which "fe" serves as the affirmative marker, the pronoun subject following the verb).
More commonly Welsh uses a construction with "Mynd" (to go)
Futurity can also be expressed by using words that imply future action
Dwi'n mynd yna heddiw: I am going there today.
The simple future, which uses verb suffixes conjugated with the verb, is used to express determination of
action or to emphasise confidence in outcome. As in the future of bod, the affirmative marker is fe.
Semitic languages
[edit]
Hebrew (Biblical)
[edit]
Biblical Hebrew has an entirely different tense system from those understood in the Indo-European
language family. There is no future tense as such. Instead, verbs express completed action or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
uncompleted action. The future is an uncompleted action, though the expression for, for example, "David
will give thanks to God" can also mean "David was giving thanks to God". The interpretation depends on
the context.
Modern Hebrew, however, has supplanted the ancient tense system and now contains a future
tense. [clarification needed]
Arabic
[edit]
To form future tense in Arabic the prefix () "sa" is added to the present tense verb, or () "sawfa".[11]
For example consider the sentence: I eat apples > "" "Akulu tuffahan"
To express the future we have two ways: I will eat apples > "" "Saakulu tuffahan" or: I will eat apples > ""
"Sawfa akulu tuffahan"
The first is written as part of the verb, whereas the latter is written as a separate word to indicate the
future but preceding the verb.
In Classical Arabic the latter indicates an individual future action that usually takes place further in the
future than the first mentioned form, which is usually used with verbs that relate to other actions, and
mostly referring to rather near future actions. However, in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) the distinction
is minimal.
Moreover, the indication of the future tense in dialectal Arabic is quite varied from one dialect to the next.
Generally speaking, the words meaning "want to" (), "go to" (), "intend to"(), and many others are used daily to
indicate future actions.[12] Interestingly, in Moroccan Arabic, the word "Ghad" () is used to indicate future,
which literally means "there" (or there is to happen), that is in some way similar to the English formation
"there I go.."
Mandarin Chinese
[edit]
Mandarin Chinese has no grammatical tense, instead indicating time of action from the context or using
adverbs. However, the auxiliary verb hu, a modal meaning "can", "know how", can alternatively
indicate futurity.[3]:p.265;[13]:p.183 For lexical futurity, the word yo, which can serve as a verb meaning
"to want", can also serve as an adverb meaning "immediately": [13]:p. 175 For example, w yo
xzo can mean either "I want to bathe" or "I am about to bathe".
Creoles
[edit]
Creoles are languages with a vocabulary heavily based on a superstrate language but a grammar based
on substrate languages and/or universal language tendencies. Some Creoles model a future tense/irrealis
mood marker on "go" from the superstrate (analogous to English "am going to"). [14]:p. 188 In many
creoles the future can be indicated with the progressive aspect, analogous to the English "I'm seeing him
tomorrow." [14]:p. 190 In general creoles tend to put less emphasis on marking tense than on marking
aspect. When any of tense, aspect, and modality are specified, they are typically indicated with invariant
pre-verbal markers in the sequence anterior relative tense (prior to the time focused on), irrealis mode
(conditional or future), imperfective aspect.[14]:pp. 176-9, p. 191
[edit]
The future marker in Jamaican Creole is /de go/ [14]:pp. 93-95 or /a go/: /de go hapm/ "is going to
happen", /mi a go on/ "I am going to run".
[edit]
In Belizean Creole, the future tense is indicated by a mandatory invariant pre-verbal particle /(w)a(n)/,
/gwein/, or /gou/.
Gullah
[edit]
In Gullah the future is indicated by the pre-verbal marker gwine: Uh gwine he'p dem "I'm going to help
them".
[edit]
In Hawaiian Creole, the pre-verbal future marker is gon: [15] Ai gon bai wan pickup "I'm going to buy one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
pickup".
Haitian Creole
[edit]
Haitian Creole, based on a French superstrate, interchangeably uses pral or va (from French 3rd person
singular va "goes") pre-verbally to indicate the future:[16] Mwen va fini lit. "I go finish"; Li pral vini jodi a
"He will come today".
References
[edit]
5.
6.
7.
8.
See section 9.
10. ^ Zink, Gaston (1997). Morphologie du franais mdival (4th edition ed.). Paris: PUF. ISBN2-13-046470X. (French)
11. ^ WordReference.com Language Forums
12. ^ WordReference.com Language Forums
13. ^ a b Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thomson, Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, 1989.
14. ^ a b c d Holm, John, An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000.
15. ^ Sakoda, Kent, and Siegel, Jeff, Pidgin Grammar, Bess Press, 2003, p. 38.
16. ^ Turnbull, Wally R., Creole Made Easy, Light Messages, 2000, p. 13.
External links
[edit]
Grammatical tenses
[hide]
About Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense[27/02/2012 09:34:31]
Disclaimers
Mobile view