Explain the simple future and compound future tenses and how to form these tenses

The simple future translates to English as "personal pronoun (I, you, he, she, we, they) + will + infinitive of the verb"

Eg. I will speak

The compound future translates as "personal pronoun + conjugated form of verb 'to be' (am, are, is) + going to + infinitive form of the verb"

Eg. I am going to speak

How to form these tenses in French

Simple future:

Use the personal pronouns to demonstrate who is doing the action in the future (je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles). Take the infinitive form of the verb eg. parler (to speak) and add the following endings:

-ai

-as

-a

-ons

-ez

-ont

Form the verb to speak (parler) in the simple future:

je parlerai- I will speak

tu parleras- you (singular/ familiar) will speak

il/ elle/ on parlera- he/ she/ we will speak

nous parlerons- we will speak

vous parlerez- you (plural/ polite) will speak

ils/ elles parleront- they will speak

For -er and -ir verbs the simple future tense ending are added onto the end of the infinitive verb form and shown above. However for -re verbs you must remove the final -e before adding the same endings.

Example: vendre (to sell)

Je vendrai- I will sell

Tu vendras- You will sell

Il/ elle/ on vendra- He/ she/ we will sell

Nous vendrons- We will sell

Vous vendrez- You will sell

Ils/ Elles vendront- They will sell

The ending for the simple future never change but there are several verbs which don't use their original infinitive form to form the simple future. These irregular verbs all have a stem which is used with the personal pronoun + stem + future simple endings to form the tense.

The most common irregular stems are as follows:

etre -> ser

avoir -> aur

aller -> ir

faire -> fer

pouvoir -> pourr

devoir -> devr

vouloir -> voudr

savoir- saur

voir -> verr

venir -> viendr

Example conjugation:

avoir- to have

j'aurai- I will have

tu auras- you will have

il/ elle/ on aura- he/ she/ we will have

nous aurons- we will have

vous aurez- you will have

ils/ elles auront- they will have

All verbs with irregular stems are formed in this same way for the simple future tense.

Compound future formation

Use the personal pronoun to show who is completing the future action + conjugated form of the verb aller (to go) + infinitive form of the verb describing the future action.

Example:

Parler (to speak)

Je vais parler- I am going to speak

Tu vas parler- You are going to speak

Il/ elle/ on va parler- He/ she/ we are going to speak

Nous allons parler- We are going to speak

Ils/ elles vont parler- They are going to speak

There are no irregular verbs for this tense. The infinitive (in this case ‘parler’) is always added to the conjugated verb ‘aller’

In French the simple future and compound future tenses are used in the same way as in English. The simple future tends to be used for describing actions in the more distant future and for events that are unplanned whereas the compounds future is more often used to describe actions in the near future and events which are planned.