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Futur proche
What’s going to happen? You can explain what will happen in the near future with the construction aller + infinitive, the French equivalent of "to be going to do."
To use le futur proche, aka le futur périphrastique,* conjugate aller in the present tense according to the subject, then follow it with the infinitive of the action verb.
Par exemple…
| L’avion va atterrir dans 2 minutes. | The plane is going to land in 2 minutes. | |
| Je vais te tĂ©lĂ©phoner Ă midi. | I’m going to call you at noon. | |
| Nous allons aller Ă la plage. | We’re going to go to the beach. |
Near Future in the Past
Aller can also be used in the imperfect to say "was going to do" something. This construction is known as le futur proche dans le passé or le futur périphrastique au passé.*
Par exemple…
| L’avion allait atterrir tĂ´t mais …. | The plane was going to land early but …. | |
| J’allais te tĂ©lĂ©phoner quand j’avais des nouvelles. | I was going to call you when I had news. | |
| Nous allions aller Ă la plage s’il faisait beau. | We were going to go to the beach if it was nice out. |
In English, you can say "I am going to" or "I was going to” and it’s a complete sentence. But French needs more: you have to include an infinitive.
| – Tu as fait tes devoirs ? – Je vais les faire après cette Ă©mission. | – Did you do your homework? – I’m going to after this show. | |
| – Il faut lire ce livre. – J’allais le faire / lire mais … | – You have to read this book. – I was going to, but … |
Near Future Quizzes
Think you’ve got it? Test yourself on the French near future with these fill-in-the-blank exercises:
Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless French account to take these tests. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free!
Related lessons
- * Periphrastic tenses
- Aller conjugations | Other uses of aller
- Venir de – recent past
- Semi-auxiliary verbs
- Future
- Present tense
- Imperfect
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