Le futur proche – Conjugation, examples and exercises

Are you already familiar with the grammar? Just scroll down and you’ll find the exercises.

This concept is quite easy to understand, and it is very useful in all aspects of the French language.

However, we need to know how to conjugate ”aller” in order to use ”Le futur proche”.

• Je vais – I go
• Tu vas – You go
• Il/elle/on va – He/she/we go
• Nous allons – We go
• Vous allez – You go (formal)
• Ils/elles vont – They go

This is an irregular verb. It can be a bit taxing to learn the different conjugations.

But as I said, all the different forms are often used in French, and you will not regret learning them .

In fact, you will be able to express yourself just by using this verb and its conjugations.

We will go through many examples in this article.

Exercises

Part 1

Part 2

Examples

Prepositions

You have probably noticed that the prepositions change in the exercises.

So, what is a preposition?

Look at these sentences:

• Je vais au magain – I am going to the store.
• Elle va à la banque – She is going to the bank.
• Ils vont aux Pays-Bas – They are going to the Netherlands.

In this case, you could say that the preposition is the link between the verb and the noun.

We need to use the correct gender of the noun. This will affect our choice of preposition:

• ”Magasin” is a masculine noun. Thus, we should use the masculine preposition (au).
• ”Banque” is a feminine noun. Thus, we need to use the feminine preposition (à la)
• “Pays-bas” is a masculine noun in plural, which corresponds with a masculine preposition in plural (aux).

Does it sound difficult? I have prepared many examples to make it more tangible

Sentences with prepositions

Examples feminine noun

• Elle va à la piscine – She goes to the pool.
• Je vais à la boulangerie – I am going to the bakery.
• On va à la banque – We are going to the bank.
• Il va à la gare – He is going to the train station.

Examples masculine noun

• On va au restaurant – We are going to the restaurant.
• Il va au cinema – He goes to the cinema.
• Je vais au travail – I am going to work.
• Elle va au marché – She is going to the market.

Examples when the noun/name begins with a vowel

• Elle va à l’école – She goes to school.
• Nous allons à l’hôpital – We are going to the hospital.
• Vous allez à l’église – You are going to church.
• Il va à l’arrêt de bus – He is going to the bus stop.

Examples plural noun

• Je vais aux Pays-Bas – I am going to the Netherlands.
• Elle va aux toilettes* – She goes to the toilet.
• Ils vont aux États-Unis – They are going to the United States.
• Il va aux Philippines – He is going to the Philippines.

*Toilet is always in plural in French.

Examples chez (when you refer to a person)

• Vous allez chez le docteur – You are going to the doctor.
• Elle va chez Christian – She goes to Christian’s place.
• On va chez mon oncle – We are going to my uncle.
• Ils vont chez Aurélie – They are going to Aurélies place.

Conclusion

• à la – Feminine
• au – Masculine
• à l’ – When the following noun/name begins with a vowel.
• aux – Plural
• chez – At someone'(s) place

Verbs

Infinitive

We have talked a lot about ”le futur proche” in relation to prepositions and nouns. It can be a bit confusing, especially if you find yourself in a position where you must know the gender of the noun.

There are other areas of applications where you don’t have to think about all this .

I think about the verbs in relation to ”le futur proche”. We can use the construction le futur proche + infinitive verb.

It is easier to counstruct than it sounds in theory:

Courir (infinitive): To run

• Je vais courir: I am going to run
• Tu vas courir: You are going to run
• Il/elle/on va courir: He/she/we are going to run
• Nous allons courir: We are going to run
• Vous allez courir: You are going to run
• Ils/elles vont courir: They are going to run

We can replace Courir with any other verb in the infinitive form. For instance:

• Je vais dormir: I am going to sleep.
• Tu vas danser: You are going to dance.
• Nous allons jouer: We are going to play.

You could write a couple of sentences to get used to this construction.

This combination allows you to speak about your day or the things you will do in the near future.

We can look at a couple of sentences to understand why it is so easy and useful.

Sentences

• Je vais danser: I am going to dance.
• Elle va nager: She is going to swim.
• Je vais cuisiner: I am going to cook.

Let’s use these use the phrases to create longer sentencens:

• Je vais danser toute la nuite puis je vais dormir: I am going to dance all night, then I am going to sleep.
• Elle va nager, puis elle va dîner: She is going to swim, then she is going to eat dinner.
• Je vais cuisiner, puis je vais travailler un peu avant d’aller dormir: I am going to cook, then I am going to work for a bit before going to bed.

Reflexive verbs

So, what is a reflexive verb? You are probably familiar with at least one reflexive verb:

• Je m’appelle

Je m’appelle requires you to repeat the action on yourself. This is the definition of this verbform.

• I call myself

There are many of them in French. Let’s go through some of them in addition to le futur proche:

• Elle va s’entraîner – She is going to train.
• Il va se coucher – He is going to bed.
• Je vais me maquiller – I am going to put on makeup.
• Il vont se doucher – They are going to take a shower.
• Il va se raser – He is going to shave.

The negative form of ”Aller.”

The negative form is easy to construct, and it is used often in daily conversations. You only need to learn 2 rules:

• The “ne” is placed between the pronoun and the verb.
• The “pas” is placed after the verb.

Let’s go through a couple of examples:

• Je vais visiter le musée – I am going to visit the museum.
• Je ne vais pas visiter le musée – I am not going to visit the museum.

• On va partir avant lui – We are going to leave before him.
• On ne va pas partir avant lui – We are not going to leave before him.

 

• Elle va se maquiller – She is going to put on makeup.
• Elle ne va pas se maquiller – She is not going to put on makeup.

 

• Nous allons voir ton ami – We are going to see your friend.
• Nous n’allons pas voir ton ami – We are not going to see your friend.

 

• Vous allez sortir tout seul – You are going out alone.
• Vous n’allez pas sortir tout seul – You are not going out alone.

You might have noticed that I have written (n’) for the last two sentences.

• Nous ne allons pas= Nous n’allons pas
• Vous ne allez pas= Vous n’allez pas

Why are we using these contractions?

In French, we want to avoid pronouncing vowels one after another.

We will therefore use contractions to solve this problem. There are similar constructions in English, for instance, ” I’m”.

There is, however, a big difference – in French, you must use the contractions.

Le futur proche or futur simple?

You could say that “Le futur simple” is the official way of speaking about the future. However, ”le futur proche” has an important role in emphasizing that something actually will happen.

It is also more common to use ”aller” to speak about the future. This is good news for students of French .

It is quite easy to learn the different conjugations of ”aller”. It is also easy to use them when you want to express yourself.

Unfortunately, the same thing can’t be said about ”futur simple”. It takes an effort to learn the different conjugations, and they are often irregular.

Furthermore, ”futur simple” often sound the same as the conditional tense. And in some cases, the difference is only decipherable in writing. For instance:

• Je serai (futur simple)
• Je serais (le conditionnel)

Or

• J’aurai (futur simple)
• J’aurais (le conditionnel)

I have dedicated an article to this tense. You can find the article here.

Last but not least, you are more than welcome to ask me a question. I enjoy answering questions as they help me to understand the rules better.

I usually respond within 24 hours.