Introduction to the futur antérieur (future perfect) in French
The futur antérieur, also called future perfect, in French is a compound tense that is used to express an action that will be completed before another action takes place in the future. The same method is used in English, often in sentences using ‘will have’ done something. It is formed by using the future tense of the auxiliary verb avoir (To have) or être (To be) followed by the past participle of the main verb. It’s similar to the future perfect tense in English.
Futur antérieur = future tense of auxiliary verb (avoir or être) + past participle of the main verb
Example:
- Quand tu auras fini tes devoirs, nous irons au cinéma
- When you have finished your homework, we will go to the movies
In this sentence, auras is the second person future tense of avoir (to have) and fini is the past participle of finir (to finish). In this sentence you can clearly see how both actions will be in the future but with the one that has to be done before the other, the futur antérieur is used instead of the futur simple. You can also see, this sentence is a variation on the ‘will have’-construction that most of the sentences with the future antérieur have. Some more examples:
- Elle aura déménagé avant que nous arrivions
- She will have moved before we arrive
- Quand ils auront mangé, ils partiront en vacances
- When they have eaten, they will leave for vacation
When to use the futur antérieur
In the sentences above you see two actions and one coming before the other, which is the most basic use of the futur anterieur. But this does not always have to be the case with this tense.
- Expressing a completed action before another future action: When you want to indicate that one action will be completed before another future action.
- Quand ils arriveront, je aurai tout préparé pour la fête.
- By the time they arrive, I will have prepared everything for the party
- An action that is completed in a specific time in the future
- À la fin de la semaine, j’ aurai terminé mon projet
- By the end of the week, I will have finished my project
- Hypothesizing about the past: When you’re imagining what might have happened in the past from the perspective of a future point in time.
- Il aura oublié son anniversaire
- He will have forgotten his birthday
- Expressing future in the past: When narrating a past event and referring to a future event from that past perspective.
- Il a dit qu’il aurait terminé le projet avant la réunion
- He said he would have finished the project before the meeting
Formation of the futur antérieur in French
As you’ve just seen, to form the futur antérieur you need two parts. The future tense of avoir (to have) or être (to be) and the past participle. Below is explained how to form these two parts.
Future simple tense of avoir (to have) and être (to be)
| Person | Avoir (To have) | Être (To be) |
| Je | aurai | serai |
| Tu | auras | seras |
| Il/Elle | aura | sera |
| Nous | aurons | serons |
| Vous | aurez | serez |
| Ils/Elles | auront | seront |
Learn more on auxiliary verbs here
Forming the past participle
Forming the past participle (participe passé) is not that difficult. It is a kind of non-conjugated form of a verb. It’s very simple to make for most regular conjugating verbs. Just remove the last two letters and add an “é”, “i” or “u” on it. So for -re verbs you add an “é”, for -ir verbs an “i” and for -re verbs an “u”.
| Regular verbs | Parler (To speak) | Manger (To eat) | Aimer (To love) |
| Past participle | parlé | mangé | aimé |
| Finir (To finish) | Choisir (To choose) | Établir (To establish) | |
| Past participle | fini | choisi | établi |
Learn more on the past participle here
More examples of the futur antérieur
- Quand tu arriveras, j’ aurai préparé le dîner
- By the time you arrive, I will have cooked dinner
- L’année prochaine, ils auront voyagé dans de nombreux pays
- By next year, they will have traveled to many countries
- Il aura fini de lire le livre avant que je ne commence le mien
- He will have finished reading the book before I start mine
- Ils auront déjà mangé le dîner quand nous rentrerons à la maison
- They will have already eaten dinner by the time we return home
- Le soleil se sera couché avant que nous n’atteignions le sommet de la montagne
- The sun will have set before we reach the top of the mountain
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