Latin Future Tense: Ultimate Guide for Beginning Students

The Latin future tense describes actions that will occur in the future. With this handy tense you can discuss tonight’s dinner plans, predict tomorrow’s weather, or even issue divinely inspired prophecies!

The future tense is easy to conceptualize: “future” is built into its name, after all. The standard translation into English involves “will”. So, for example, docēbō means “I will teach”.

The concept may be simple, but the forms can be tough. The first and second conjugations form the future tense in one way (via the marker -bi-), while the third and fourth conjugations have their own method (inserting the vowel –ē-).

But don’t worry. As a Latin professor, I have helped many students to master this tricky tense, and I can help you, too!

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Future Tense of 1st and 2nd Conjugation Latin Verbs

In English, we indicate that an action occurs in the future by adding the helping verb will.

• I will wait
• You will stay
• We will sit
• S/he will hasten

Latin does not use helping verbs in this context. In fact, the short sentences listed above can each be translated by a single Latin word.

• Exspectābō = I will wait
• Manēbis = You will stay
• Sedēbimus = We will sit
• Festīnābit = S/he will hasten

Remember: Latin verbs include person and number in their endings.

The –ō in exspectābō signals that “I” will be the one waiting. The -s at the end of manēbis indicates that “you” will be the one staying. And so forth.

Well, guess what? Latin verbs in the future tense also include a tense marker!

Scroll back up and look at the three examples. Can you see a pattern?

If you noticed the -b– in all four forms, good job!

All right, let’s break things down a bit more (no pun intended).

The future tense is built off the present stem. My post on Latin verb stems explains how to identify a verb’s present stem, so if you need a refresher, I encourage you to go check that out.

Here I will just remind you that 1st conjugation verbs have present stems ending in -ā- (long A).

2nd conjugation verbs, on the other hand, have present stems ending in -ē- (long E).

We will use the 1st conjugation verb exspectō, exspectāre “wait” as our first example. The present stem is exspectā-.

When we combine exspectā– and -bi- we get exspectābi-, but wait! We aren’t done.

We know from the stem that the action is waiting. We know from the future tense marker that the waiting will happen in the future.

But we don’t know WHO will perform the action, and for that we need a personal ending.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that -s signals that “you” perform an action? Well, if you want to say “you will wait”, you can add -s to exspectābi-.

exspectā + bi + s > exspectābis = you will wait

Logical, right? It’s different than how we form the future tense in English, but it makes sense.

Of course, there are some complications. –ō signals that “I” perform an action, but when we add exspectā + bi + ō, we get exspectābō (“I will wait”).

exspectā + bi + ō > exspectābō = I will wait

The I in -bi- disappears.

Another sound change happens when -nt, the third person plural or “they” ending, combines with -bi-.

exspectā + bi + nt > exspectābunt = they will wait

The -bi- changes to -bu- in this form.

Now that we have covered the basic principle, it’s time to look at some verb charts!

Active Voice

The following chart shows exspectō and maneō fully conjugated in the future active. The interpunct (•) indicates where the present stem ends and the future tense ending begins.

Person & No.	1st Conjugation	2nd Conjugation
1st sing.	exspectā•bō ”I will wait”	manē•bō ”I will stay”
2nd sing.	exspectā•bis ”you will wait”	manē•bis ”you will stay”
3rd sing.	exspectā•bit ”he/she/it will wait”	manē•bit ”he/she/it will stay”
1st plur.	exspectā•bimus ”we will wait”	manē•bimus ”we will stay”
2nd plur.	exspectā•bitis ”y’all will wait”	manē•bitis ”y’all will stay”
3rd plur.	exspectā•bunt ”they will wait”	manē•bunt ”they will stay”

The very same endings appear on 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs (bō, bis, bit, bimus, bitis, bunt).

The only difference is the preceding stem vowel: long A for 1st conjugation vs. long E for 2nd conjugation.

This is great news. It means that all you have to do is memorize these endings, and then you can add them to the present stem of ANY 1st or 2nd conjugation verb.

Passive Voice

The future passive is formed according to the same principles as the future active. It consists of the present stem, the tense marker bi, and a final personal ending.

The present stem and the tense marker are the same in both active and passive. The difference is the personal endings.

👉 Not quite sure what “active” and “passive” mean? Check out my beginner’s guide to verb conjugation!

To form the future passive, combine the present stem with –bi- and then add the passive personal endings. They are –r, –ris, –tur, –mur, –minī, and –ntur.

This time our sample verbs will be vocō, vocāre “call” (1st conjugation) and terreō, terrēre “terrify” (2nd conjugation).

Person & No.	1st Conjugation	2nd Conjugation
1st sing.	vocā•bor ”I will be called”	terrē•bor ”I will be terrified”
2nd sing.	vocā•beris ”you will be called”	terrē•beris ”you will be terrified”
3rd sing.	vocā•bitur ”he/she/it will be called”	terrē•bitur ”he/she/it will be terrified”
1st plur.	vocā•bimur ”we will be called”	terrē•bimur ”we will be terrified”
2nd plur.	vocā•biminī ”y’all will be called”	terrē•biminī ”y’all will be terrified”
3rd plur.	vocā•buntur ”they will be called”	terrē•buntur ”they will be terrified”

In the 1st person singular, -bi-or becomes –bor. The I disappears before the O just as we saw with the active voice.

In the 3rd person plural, –bi-ntur becomes –buntur, and the shift from I to U is also familiar from the active voice.

But there is a third sound change to be aware of in the passive voice. Look at the 2nd person singular.

vocā-bi-ris > vocāberis

terrē-bi-ris > terrēberis

For whatever reason, the Romans weren’t a fan of –biris, so the I of the tense marker becomes an E.

REMEMBER: All 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs form their future passive in this way. This means that you can add bor, beris, bitur, bimur, biminī, buntur to the present stem of ANY 1st or 2nd conjugation verb.

Practice!

It’s time for you to put your new knowledge into action. The word bank below contains eight verbs, and I want you to use them to make short sentences.

I have given the first two principal parts of each verb. This is all the information you need to determine what conjugation each verb belongs to and to identify the present stem.

Take a moment to study the verbs above. Now you are ready for Exercise 1!

Can you translate the following English statements into Latin? I have included the relevant noun forms in parentheses so that you can focus on the verbs.

How did you do? If you feel confident with 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs, it’s time to move on to the future tense of 3rd and 4th conjugation.

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Future Tense of 3rd and 4th Conjugation Latin Verbs

3rd and 4th conjugation verbs do not use the future tense marker –bi-. Instead, we mark the future by inserting the vowel –ē– (long E).

3rd conjugation verbs have present stems ending in -e- (short E).

4th conjugation verbs have present stems ending in –ī– (long E).

Although not be precisely accurate from a historical linguistic perspective, I think it is still helpful to conceptualize the future tense as a merger of the present stem, a future tense marker, and the final personal sign.

Take, for example, the verb mittō, mittere “send”. The present stem is mitte-. If we add mitte- and –ē- together, it makes sense that we would end up with mittē-, a new “future stem” ending in a long E.

From there we can add the final personal signs. For instance, if I want to say “you will send”, I would add –s.

mitte + ē + s > mittēs = you will send

We can imagine a similar process with 4th conjugation. Audiō, audīre “hear” has the present stem audī-. When we add –ē-, we get audiē– (with the I shortened).

audī + ē + s > audiēs = you will hear

This makes sense, right?

I have listed the full future conjugation of these two verbs below. But before we look at the paradigms, I have a warning for you.

It can be harder to recognize the future tense of the 3rd and 4th conjugations because it depends on a vowel change. There is no obvious –b- like in the 1st and 2nd conjugations.

And, what’s worse, 2nd conjugation verbs in the present tense have long E.

Mittēs (“you will send”, 3rd conjugation) and vidēs (“you see”, 2nd conjugation) have the exact same ending: –ēs. But mittēs is future tense and vidēs is present tense.

The only way to tell is by knowing what conjugation the verb belongs to. (This is why you should memorize all four parts of a Latin verb!!!)

Active Voice

The following chart shows mittō and audiō fully conjugated in the future active.

The interpunct (•) indicates where the present stem ends and the future tense ending begins. Remember: the short –e- of the 3rd conjugation present stem disappears entirely.

Person & No.	3rd Conjugation	4th Conjugation
1st sing.	mitt•am ”I will send”	audi•am ”I will hear”
2nd sing.	mitt•ēs ”you will send”	audi•ēs ”you will hear”
3rd sing.	mitt•et ”he/she/it will send”	audi•et ”he/she/it will hear”
1st plur.	mitt•ēmus ”we will send”	audi•ēmus ”we will hear”
2nd plur.	mitt•ētis ”y’all will send”	audi•ētis ”y’all will hear”
3rd plur.	mitt•ent ”they will send”	audi•ent ”they will hear”

The very same endings appear on both conjugations (am, ēs, et, ēmus, ētis, ent). The 4th conjugation simply has an extra I, a holdover from the long –ī- present stem ending.

NOTE: 3rd conjugation –iō verbs have the extra I just like the 4th conjugation. Why? Because 3rd i-stem verbs technically have stems ending in –i- (short I), and this I is preserved.

👉 Curious? Find out more about 3rd conjugation –iō verbs!

Now you may have noticed that there is an A instead of an E in the 1st person singular. This is a strange quirk and you simply have to memorize it.

The good news is that there is a helpful Latin mnemonic for memorizing the vowel pattern. Ham and five eggs!

Take another look at the chart. 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs have a 1st person singular ending in -am (ham). Then the other forms all have Es: ēs, et, ēmus, ētis, ent (five eggs).

Ham = am
Egg #1 = ēs
Egg #2 = et
Egg #3 = ēmus
Egg #4 = ētis
Egg #5 = ent

My students love this mnemonic. Once I started using it, their quiz scores skyrocketed!

Finally, be sure to pay attention to the macrons. The long –ē– shortens before final T and before -NT-, which is why you see mittet, NOT *mittēt, and audient, NOT *audiēnt.

Passive

The future passive is formed according to the same principles as the future active. It consists of the present stem, the tense marker -ē-, and a final personal ending.

The combination of the present stem and the tense marker is the same in both active and passive. The difference is the personal endings.

The following chart shows mittō and audiō fully conjugated in the future passive.

The interpunct (•) indicates where the present stem ends and the future tense ending begins. Remember: the short –e- of the 3rd conjugation present stem disappears entirely.

Person & No.	3rd Conjugation	4th Conjugation
1st sing.	mitt•ar ”I will be sent”	audi•ar ”I will be heard”
2nd sing.	mitt•ēris ”you will be sent”	audi•ēris ”you will be heard”
3rd sing.	mitt•ētur ”he/she/it will be sent”	audi•ētur ”he/she/it will be heard”
1st plur.	mitt•ēmur ”we will be sent”	audi•ēmur ”we will be heard”
2nd plur.	mitt•ēminī ”y’all will be sent”	audi•ēminī ”y’all will be heard”
3rd plur.	mitt•entur ”they will be sent”	audi•entur ”they will be heard”

As we saw above with the active voice, the very same endings appear on both conjugations (ar, ēris, ētur, ēmur, ēminī, entur).

NOTE: 3rd conjugation –iō verbs once again follow the 4th conjugation in having an I before the future tense marker and ending.

This time, the macron sticks around in the 3rd person singular (mittētur and audiētur) because the T is no longer word-final.

The macron still disappears in the 3rd person plural (mittentur and audientur) because -NT- always shortens the preceding vowel, no matter where it is located in the word.

Practice

Now it’s time to practice with 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs. In the following word bank, I have given you the first two principal parts of eight verbs. Use this information to complete Exercise 2!

Watch out – there are some 3rd –iō verbs here, too!

Can you translate the following English statements into Latin? Once again, I have included the relevant noun forms in parentheses so that you can focus on the verbs.

How to Translate the Latin Future Tense

The standard translation of the Latin future tense is simple. In the active voice, we say “will _________”, while in the passive, we say “will be ___________ed”.

It is important to note, though, that the future tense can be translated into English in different ways.

English distinguishes between “I will do something” and “I will be doing something”. This second form is the future continuous, an English verb form that stresses the ongoing nature of the future action.

English also commonly uses “going to _______” as a future equivalent. “I am going to do something” usually means the same thing as “I will do something”.

In Latin, the simple future tense covers all these possibilities. We can translate veniam as “I will come”, but also “I will be coming” and “I am going to come”.

We can translate vincar as “I will be conquered”, but also “I will be being conquered” (weird, I know) and “I am going to be conquered” (less weird).

The default is “I will come” (or “I will be conquered”, for the passive example). But if you are doing an artistic translation and you think that “I will be coming” or “I am going to come” sounds better, these are perfectly valid translations!

The Latin future tense also encompasses the English “shall _________”. Shall is disappearing in favor of will (especially in American English), but it still pops up from time to time.

There are (mostly outdated) rules for will vs. shall in English, but the Latin future tense covers both formations.

Future Tense of Irregular Verbs

Some Latin verbs are highly irregular. In other words, they do not follow normal conjugation patterns. The future tense of these verbs is no exception.

The following chart gives the future active forms of three common irregular verbs: sum (be), possum (be able), and eō (go).

Person & No.	sum	possum	eō
1st sing.	erō ”I will be”	poterō ”I will be able”	ībō “I will go”
2nd sing.	eris ”you will be”	poteris ”you will be able”	ībis “you will go”
3rd sing.	erit ”he/she/it will be”	poterit ”he/she/it will be able”	ībit “he/she/it will go”
1st plur.	erimus ”we will be”	poterimus ”we will be able”	ībimus “we will go”
2nd plur.	eritis ”y’all will be”	poteritis ”y’all will be able”	ībitis “y’all will go”
3rd plur.	erunt ”they will be”	poterunt ”they will be able”	ībunt “they will go”

Notice that these verbs, though irregular, still have the standard final personal signs: ō, s, t, mus, tis, nt.

Also notice that the future tense of possum (be able) is built from the future tense of sum (be). Simply add pot- on the front of sum‘s future tense forms, and you have the future of possum!

There are other irregular verbs not listed here, but these are the three with the weirdest looking future tenses. If you memorize these forms, you will be in good shape!

Advanced Future Forms: Participles, Infinitives, and Imperatives

This post has focused on the future indicative, the basic future tense which Latin students learn early on. But there are also other, much more advanced future forms.

First, the good news: there is no future subjunctive in Latin. This has given rise to a joke among Latin teachers:

Q: Why did Latin die out? A: Because the subjunctive had no future!

Jokes aside, advanced students may want to check out other future forms:

• future participles
• future infinitives
• active periphrastic
• future imperatives

If you are still a beginner, then focus on the simple future indicative tense. You can come back to these advanced forms later.

Study The Future Tense: A Final Tip

After years of teaching beginning Latin, I have concluded that the hardest part of the future tense is the variation.

All other Latin verb tenses have similar logic for all four conjugations, but 1st and 2nd conjugation future forms look very different from 3rd and 4th conjugation future forms. This is, understandably, tough for students to wrap their heads around.

Luckily, there is a mnemonic that can help!

Bo bi bu for one and two
A and E for four and three

This handy rhyme will help you remember which patterns go with which conjugation.

Hopefully you now feel better equipped to recognize and understand the future tense. The best way to practice is to read, read, and read some more!

I highly recommend Latin novellas as a source of comprehensible, fun reading material. You will build your comprehension skills and learn something about Roman literature, culture, and/or history!

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