The future perfect tense: How to form and use it in French?

The French future perfect, or futur antérieur, is a compound tense used to describe an action that either:

1. “will have happened” by some point in the future, or

2. is interdependent with another, later, future action (something will have happened in the future before another action further in the future).

   

   Quand tu arriveras, on aura déjà mangé.

   Translation: When you arrive, we’ll have already eaten.

Have you noticed that tu arriveras is in the futur simple in French, but translated using the present tense in English (you arrive)? Wondering why? Read this article and you’ll find your answers! You will learn about what the future perfect expresses, how it is formed, the conjunctions it is used after, and how it works with pronouns, adverbs, negation, and questions.

The French future perfect (futur antérieur) is a compound tense which combines the auxiliary avoir (meaning to have) or être (meaning to be) and the past participle of a verb. Does it remind you of another French tense?

Le passé composé! The only difference is that the auxiliary verb in the future perfect is conjugated in the future tense. All other rules, such as the choice of auxiliary, the formation of the past participle, and the word order with negation, pronouns, etc, apply. Let’s have a look at the different steps to form the future perfect:

• STEP 1: Choose the right auxiliary verb and conjugate it in the future tense (check our useful technique to know which French auxiliary verb to choose for compound tenses!)

  avoir (meaning will have)
  j'aurai
  tu auras
  il, elle, on aura
  nous aurons
  vous aurez
  ils, elles auront

  être (meaning will be)
  je serai
  tu seras
  il, elle, on sera
  nous serons
  vous serez
  ils, elles seront

• STEP 2: Add the past participle of a verb. The past participle of a verb using être agrees in gender and number with the subject. For more details, check out our article about agreement with the past participle in French!

  Here is a selection of the past participle form of the most used verbs in French. Some of the following past participles are irregular, while others are regular. For more examples, check out our full list of irregular past participles!

  *verbs used with être

  être → été Translation: to be

  avoir → eu Translation: to have

  pouvoir → pu Translation: can

  faire → fait Translation: to do

  aller → allé* Translation: to go

  venir → venu* Translation: to come

  prendre → pris Translation: to take

  devoir → dû Translation: must

  voir → vu Translation: to see

  falloir → fallu Translation: must

  *verbs used with être

  vouloir → voulu Translation: to want

  mettre → mis Translation: to put

  dire → dit Translation: to say

  savoir → su Translation: to know

  partir → parti* Translation: to leave

  appeler → appelé Translation: to call

  attendre → attendu Translation: to wait

  aimer → aimé Translation: to like

  croire → cru Translation: to believe

  donner → donné Translation: to give

Now we can put it all together! Let’s start with the future perfect of the verb attendre (meaning to wait):

• STEP 1: Attendre takes the auxiliary verb avoir.

• STEP 2: The past participle of attendre is attendu.

• STEP 3: Now we get…

  Nous aurons attendu pour rien.

  Translation: We will have waited for nothing.

Now let’s do the same with arriver (meaning to arrive):

• STEP 1: Arriver is a verb that takes auxiliary être. (This means we form agreement with the subject!)

• STEP 2: The past participle of arriver is arrivé.

• STEP 3: Now we get…

  On sera arrivés avant vous.

  Translation: We’ll have arrived before you do.

To review how to form the future perfect, try our activities on the French future perfect, or read on to learn more!

Use the future perfect in French to talk about actions that…

• will be completed or that you think will be completed by a certain time in the future

• are interdependent in the future

  • Use the future perfect to say when an action will have occurred before another future action occurs (the past of the future)

• must happen in order for another future action to occur afterward

• predict what may have happened in the past

• look at a past situation with hindsight

• narrate events in the past

Let’s have a look at each of these cases where you’ll use the future perfect.

• To say when an action will be completed in the future

  Use the future perfect when we predict that an action will be completed by a certain time in the future. The future perfect can be used with indications of time like d’ici (meaning by), dans (meaning in) + amount of time, or bientôt (meaning soon).

  indication of timefuture perfect

  D’ici la fin du mois, j’aurai économisé assez pour mes vacances.

  Translation: By the end of the month, I will have saved enough for my holiday.

  indication of timefuture perfect

  Il aura bientôt terminé, restez un peu plus longtemps !

  Translation: By the end of the month, I will have saved enough for my holiday.

• To say when two future actions are interdependent

  The future perfect can also be used when two future actions are interdependent, meaning one future action depends on another future action (in the future perfect) happening first. Usually, interdependent future events are linked with conjunctions.

  Here are the conjunctions used to link interdependent future actions:

  French	English
  dès que aussitôt que	as soon as
  quand lorsque	when
  une fois que	once
  après que	after
  le jour où	the day

  conjunctionfuture perfect

  J’allumerai le four dès qu’ils seront arrivés.

  Translation: I’ll put the oven on as soon as they have arrived.

  These conjunctions can be followed by the simple future or by the future perfect. Sometimes, these conjunctions come before the event that happens first, and sometimes they come before the event that happens second. But regardless of where the conjunction is in the sentence, the future perfect is always used for the event that happens first.

  This means that sometimes the future perfect may be in the subordinate clause:

  conjunctionfuture perfectsimple future

  Une fois que Sophie aura terminé, Thomas pourra l’utiliser.

  Translation: Once Sophie finishes, Thomas will be able to use it.

  Or, sometimes, the future perfect appears in the main clause instead:

  conjunctionsimple futurefuture perfect

  Quand Thomas arrivera, Sophie sera déjà partie.

  Translation: When Thomas arrives, Sophie will have already left.

• To imagine what might have happened

  You can also use the future perfect tense in French to predict, assume, or imagine what might have happened in the past.

  You have probably already learned to do this by using the passé composé with an adverb expressing certainty or doubt. While this use is acceptable in French, using the future perfect in this context is more idiomatic, so you’ll sound more fluent!

  Let’s see some examples:

  • English: “She’s late, she probably forgot her keys”

    With future perfect	With passé composé + adverb
    future perfect Elle est en retard, elle aura sans doute oublié ses clés. Translation: lit. She’s late, she’ll probably have forgotten her keys.	passé composé Elle est en retard, elle a sans doute oublié ses clés. Translation: lit. She’s late, she’s probably forgotten her keys.

  • English: “They definitely went to the pizzeria.”

    With future perfect	With passé composé + adverb
    future perfect Ils seront (encore) allés à la pizzeria. Translation: lit. They’ll have gone to the pizzeria (again).	passé composé Ils sont certainement allés à la pizzeria. Translation: lit. They have certainly gone to the pizzeria.

  • English: “The children probably had a fight.”

    With future perfect	With passé composé + adverb
    future perfect Les enfants se seront probablement disputés. Translation: lit. The children will probably have fought.	passé composé Les enfants se sont probablement disputés. Translation: lit. The children have probably fought.

• To reflect on the past in hindsight

  In French, you can use the future perfect tense when you are thinking about or discussing the past, particularly to look at a past situation with hindsight. It’s similar to using the present tense for the passé simple. Let’s start with the former.

  Isn’t it fascinating that French uses a future tense to look at a situation with hindsight?! You could, of course, use the passé composé to express the same meaning, but using the future perfect allows you to put an emphasis on what you are talking about and sound like a native!

  Il les aura toutes faites !

  Translation: He’s really made all the possible mistakes!

  On aura tout vu !

  Translation: Now we’ve seen it all!

  J’aurai tout entendu !

  Translation: Now I’ve heard it all!

• For an earlier past event (when describing the past with the present tense)

  When you’re using the present tense to narrate past events (as the equivalent of the past historic), the future perfect is used for an action completed before the main event.

  presentfuture perfect

  Les soldats reçoivent le message vers minuit. À 2h00, ils seront alors partis.

  Translation: The soldiers received the message. By 2 am, they had already left.

  Literally: lit. lit. The soldiers receive the message. By 2 am, they will have already left.

  This means that, when you’re talking about the past, you can use the future perfect and the present together just like you might use the pluperfect with the past historic!

  past historicpluperfect

  Les soldats reçurent le message vers minuit. À 2h00, ils étaient déjà partis.

  Translation: The soldiers received the message. By 2 am, they had already left.

Now that you know when to use the future perfect in French, it is time to learn one last point!

There are three ways of asking questions in French and you may have a favorite. If you are interested in learning other ways, check out our post on how to form questions in French! Let’s see how the same question can be asked in three different ways using the future perfect!

Let’s ask, “Will you have already come home?”

1. Formal question wIth subject-verb inversion:

   Serez-vous déjà rentrés ?

2. Est-ce que question (my favorite as it is convenient in any kind of situation):

   Est-ce que vous serez déjà rentrés ?

3. Informal question with a high pitched tone on the final word:

   Vous serez déjà rentrés ?

When forming the future perfect in French, keep the following tips in mind!

• The future perfect is a compound tense so if you are familiar with the passé composé, you just need to conjugate the auxiliary in the future tense and apply all the rules linked to le passé composé.

• In French, the future perfect can be used to guess what could have happened in the past and also look at a situation with hindsight!

• While some conjunctions like dès que (meaning as soon as), quand (meaning when), après que (meaning after) are followed by the present tense in English, they can be followed by a future tense in French.

Why not practice with our French future perfect activities and test your skills?