Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
But first, let's get familiar with simple future conjugations. |
In Italian, this is how you form the futuro semplice, or simple future tense. |
The future tense endings are: -ò, -ai, -à, -emo, -ete, -anno. |
For regular -are, -ere, and -ire verbs, drop the final -e from the infinitive and add the ending. |
Only with -are verbs, you also change the a to e before adding the ending. |
Now let's see the pattern that all of our examples will follow. |
[Subject] + [Verb in Future Tense] + [Complement] |
Let's look at the subject first. In Italian, the subject is often implied through the verb ending. |
If needed for clarity or emphasis, the subject can also be stated explicitly, like adding a personal pronoun like tu "you" or a name. |
Next is the verb in the future tense. |
Last is the complement, which tells us more about the action. |
Let's see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern. |
Isabella, cosa farai quest'estate? |
"Isabella, what are you going to do this summer?" |
In this sentence: |
Isabella functions as a vocative, the person being spoken to; the actual grammatical subject "tu" is implied. |
Farai is the future tense form of the verb fare, meaning "to do" or "to make." |
It's the second-person singular form with the -ai ending, so it tells us "you will do." |
Quest'estate is the complement, meaning "this summer." |
In this phrase, questa" means "this," and "estate" means "summer." Together, they tell us when the action will take place. |
So, "Isabella, cosa farai quest'estate?" translates to "Isabella, what are you going to do this summer?" |
Now you can use this structure—[Subject] + [Verb in Future Tense] + [Complement]—to talk about your future plans in Italian. |
Let's see a few more simple future examples: |
Parlare becomes parlerai — "you will talk." |
Prendere becomes prenderai — "you will take." |
Dormire becomes dormirai — "you will sleep." |
You'll hear these forms a lot when talking about plans or intentions. |
Now you can use these structures to talk about things you will do in the future in Italian! |
In Italian, irregular verbs in the futuro semplice don't follow the regular conjugation patterns used for -are, -ere, or -ire verbs. |
While regular verbs drop the final -e and follow a clear pattern, irregular verbs use altered stems, but they still take the same future tense endings: -ò, -ai, -à, -emo, -ete, -anno. |
For example, instead of using the full infinitive, |
andare becomes andr-, and you get andrai for "you will go." |
Avere turns into avr-, so avrai means "you will have." |
Essere becomes sar-, leading to sarai, "you will be." |
And fare becomes far-, so farai means "you will do" or "make." |
These irregular stems often don't look like the infinitive forms at all, which is why it's important to memorize them early. |
They're used frequently in everyday speech, so you'll hear them often. |
Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
Io studierò domani mattina. |
"I will study tomorrow morning." |
Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
Let's break it down: |
Here, Io is the subject. |
Even though it's not always required in Italian, because the verb ending shows who the subject is, it appears here for emphasis and clarity. It tells us who will do the action. |
Studierò is the verb in the future tense. It's the first-person singular form of the verb studiare, meaning "to study." |
The -ò ending shows it's in the future tense and that the subject is "I." This tells us what the speaker will do. |
Domani mattina is the complement. It means "tomorrow morning," and it tells us when the action will happen. |
So that is how Io studierò domani mattina fits the pattern [Subject] + [Verb in Future Tense] + [Complement]. |
Here's another example |
Noi mangeremo pizza stasera. |
"We will eat pizza tonight." |
Noi mangeremo pizza stasera. |
"We will eat pizza tonight." |
Let's try one more, |
Marco visiterà Roma in estate. |
"Marco will visit Rome in the summer." |
Marco visiterà Roma in estate. |
"Marco will visit Rome in the summer." |
Another one. |
Preparerò la torta per te domani. |
"I will make the cake for you tomorrow." |
Preparerò la torta per te domani. |
"I will make the cake for you tomorrow." |
One last example with an irregular verb. |
Luca sarà a casa domani. |
"Luca will be home tomorrow." |
In this sentence, sarà is the irregular future form of the verb essere, "to be." |
Luca sarà a casa domani. |
"Luca will be home tomorrow." |
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