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Glite Dictionary
⏳ Showing future time 🔮 About the future 📝 Future tense sign
futural

futural

9.8
To show in grammar that an action will happen in the future
  • adjective
  • /ˈfjuːtʃərəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : futuro
  • In English, we often use 'will' to indicate futural actions.

Examples

  • The futural aspect of the verb helps speakers talk about events that have not yet occurred.

  • The futural tense is important in many languages.

  • In some languages, a special futural construction is used to express intention or prediction.

  • Teachers often explain the futural meaning of 'going to' when discussing English grammar.

  • The futural tense is used in sentences like 'I will eat lunch tomorrow' to indicate future time.

  • In English grammar, the futural construction helps learners express what they plan to do next.

  • When studying German, understanding how to use the futural form can improve your ability to make predictions.

Synonyms

future
vsfutural
  • Specialized
12 2.8

Relating to a verb tense that shows actions that will happen later

is broader and not limited to a single verb tense

Surface Forms

futural positive

Morphology

futural = future (semi-transparent) = future + al

Formed from 'future' + '-al' so the relation is clear, but the sense as a technical grammatical descriptor is specialized and may not be obvious to an average B1 learner.

Etymology

The word futural comes from the Latin futurus 'about to be' and shares the same root as the common word future. So a futural form points to things that will happen, often when verbs show future time.