French Grammar Explained /
Near future VS simple future
Let's look at the two future tenses in French:
Je vais faire le tour du monde.
I am going to travel around the world.
Je ferai le tour du monde.
I will travel around the world.
What do you notice?
The sentences are kind of the same?
Not quite... The sentences are the same except for the tense that I used.
But they are both in the future tense.
That's correct!
Le futur proche and le futur simple are the two tenses used in French to express something happening in the future. In some contexts, both tenses can be interchangeable, especially in spoken French.
In some cases, it is necessary to distinguish one from the other.
Le futur proche → expresses the idea of certainty.
Le futur simple → expresses the idea of uncertainty.
Can you see the difference between our examples now?
I think so. Je vais faire le tour du monde means that the person has already planned the trip, or even bought the tickets. This will happen sometime soon.
Exactement !
The second one, je ferai le tour du monde sounds more like a dream that may or may not come true.
Well done, you've got it!
Note that a few expressions can help you choose between le futur proche and le futur simple.
For instance, expressions of time like demain, ce weekend, le mois prochain, etc. are most likely to be used with le futur proche.
On the other hand, expressions like un jour, dans 5 ans, dans le futur, are most likely linked to le futur simple.