Simple future (falarei, farei)

The simple future (falarei, comerás, abrirá) is the infinitive plus endings. In speech it is mostly replaced by ir + infinitive; you meet it in writing, formal speech, promises and forecasts.

Points to know

• Only fazer, dizer, trazer are irregular: they drop -ze- (far-, dir-, trar-).
• falarão (they will speak) and falaram (they spoke) differ in stress and spelling: the future ends in -ão.
• With object pronouns, formal writing puts the pronoun inside the verb in Portugal (dir-te-ei); Brazil puts it before (te direi). Never after the ending.
• It can also express a guess about the present: Onde estará o João? (Where can João be?)
• For requests, English “will you…?” is pode…?, not the future.

Examples

• O voo chegará às 18h.The flight will arrive at 6 p.m.
• Amanhã choverá no sul.Tomorrow it will rain in the south.
• Eu farei o possível.I’ll do my best.
• Vocês terão uma surpresa.You’ll get a surprise.
• Nunca esquecerei este dia.I will never forget this day.

Common mistakes

• ✗ Eu vou falarei com ele.✓ Eu falarei com ele.The simple future already contains the meaning of “will”; adding vou doubles it. Use either falarei or vou falar.
• ✗ Eu fazerei o bolo.✓ Eu farei o bolo.fazer drops -ze- in the future: farei; English “will make” has no irregular form to warn you.
• ✗ Eu ligarei-te amanhã.✓ Eu te ligarei amanhã.A pronoun never goes after a future ending; Brazil puts it before (te ligarei) and formal European Portuguese inside (ligar-te-ei).
• ✗ Amanhã eles falaram com o chefe.✓ Amanhã eles falarão com o chefe.falaram is the past; the future ends in -ão, falarão, a difference you hear in the stress on the last syllable.
• ✗ Você abrirá a janela, por favor?✓ Você pode abrir a janela, por favor?English uses “will you…?” for requests, but in Portuguese the future sounds like a prediction; ask with pode.