Future Tense in Portuguese

In Portuguese, as in English, future tenses are normally used to refer to actions that haven’t yet taken place. 

In this post, I will walk you through the Portuguese equivalents of several English future tenses (I will lay them out according to English grammar terminology). 

Let’s get started. 

Tips! Here’re a couple of analogous reads about the Portuguese present and past tenses:
• Portuguese Past Tenses – Usage Rundown Anchored to English
• Portuguese Present Tenses – Usage Rundown Anchored to English

Conjugation

I will be using the verb pensar (think) for the usage examples below. Here’s what it looks like when conjugated in the Portuguese simple future tense (futuro):

It is worth noticing that the Portuguese equivalent of the simple future tense has a conjugation pattern that encompasses almost all verbs (three exceptions only). In the table above, you will see all regular endings bolded out. 

To conjugate the Portuguese simple future tense, take the infinitive form of any verb (that will make the stem) and add those endings to it. It’s as simple as that.

Here’re the three exceptions I’ve mentioned above (the endings are the same but the stem doesn’t correspond to the infinitive form):

Simple future

Here’s an example with the Portuguese simple future tense (futuro): 

Now, this futuro tense will often sound too formal and is mostly used in written language. In day-to-day life, we are likely to use something more colloquial and akin to the English structure be going to + main verb.

We’ll now need ir as our auxiliary verb:

Here’s a more colloquial version of the example above:

Note that, in English, the difference between will + infinitive vs. be going to + infinitive is overly contextual (and not so much pertaining to differences in style). 

In Portuguese, however, the difference between futuro vs. ir + infinitive mostly concerns style and register (formal/written vs. informal/spoken).

Finally, we sometimes use futuro to wonder about something (uncertain scenario): 

In this context, another alternative (perhaps more common) would be to use the Portuguese modal* verb dever:

* Learn more about the Portuguese equivalents of English modal verbs: Portuguese Modal Verbs Equivalent to Must, May, Could, Should, and the Like

Future in the past

Often, we talk about the future from a time in the past. Then, we use the so-called future-in-the-past tense. 

In Portuguese, there are two ways of doing this. Either we use (1) the conditional (condicional) or (2) a compound structure with the auxiliary verb ir conjugated in the imperfect tense (pretérito imperfeito) and the main verb in the infinitive. 

* Note that in Brazilian Portuguese the condicional tense is sensibly called futuro do passado (literally future of the past). Also, the condicional´s conjugation shares the same principles and exceptions as the futuro tense (as spelled out before). The only difference between the two is the conjugated endings (bolded out in the table above).  

Here’s an example:

Both alternatives are common. The first option is perhaps slightly more formal than the second.

Future continuous

We use the future continuous tense to indicate that something will occur in the future and continue for an expected length of time. 

As in any other continuous/progressive tense, you’ll be using estar as the auxiliary verb:

Here’s an example:

Tips! Learn more about Portuguese progressive tenses: Portuguese Gerund: Progressive Tenses and Beyond.

As I pointed out before, it’s more colloquial to use the structure  ir + infinitivo than the futuro tense

Keep in mind that continuous tenses look slightly different in the Brazilian standard – the preposition a is left out and our main verb (pensar) comes in the present participle (gerúndio) instead:

Future perfect

We use the future perfect to refer to completed actions in the future.

As in any other perfect tense, we will be using the auxiliary verb ter (this time around conjugated in the futuro tense:

Let’s change our main verb to trabalhar (instead of pensar). We’ll be using its past participle form* (particípio passado), that is, trabalhado. Here’s an example:

* Learn more about the Portuguese past participle: Portuguese Past Participle and Auxiliary Verbs that Go with It

As pointed out before, we use the simple future tense to hypothesize or express doubt. The same goes for the future perfect (which in this case refers to a time in the past):

Reading tips! If you’ve enjoyed this read, you’ll probably like these as well:
• Portuguese Past Tenses – Usage Rundown Anchored to English
• Portuguese Present Tenses – Usage Rundown Anchored to English