The French futur antérieur, or future perfect, is one of the more logical verb tenses for English speakers to learn because the concept translates cleanly from English. It’s the “will have” tense: the one you use to describe something that will be completed before another point in the future (similar to how the plus-que-parfait is the past before the past).
If you’ve already worked through the futur simple and the passé composé, you already have all the building blocks you need. The futur antérieur is combines 1) the futur simple form of avoir or être with 2) a past participle, making its formation very similar to what you’ve already with other compound tenses like passé composé.
In English, the future perfect sounds like this:
“By the time you read this, I will have left.”
“She will have finished her work before Friday.”
“Once he has arrived, we’ll start.”
French expresses all of these ideas with the futur antérieur. Let’s look at how to form it, then when to use it.
How to Form the Futur Antérieur
The futur antérieur is a two-part compound tense. To form it, you take the futur simple conjugation of avoir or être as the helping verb, plus the past participle of the main verb.
Step 1: Conjugate avoir or être in the futur simple
The same rules that determine which helping verb to use in the passé composé apply here. Être verbs (the “Dr Mrs Vandertramp” verbs, plus reflexive verbs) use être. All other verbs use avoir.
Futur simple of avoir:
| avoir | |
| j’aurai | nous aurons |
| tu auras | vous aurez |
| il/elle aura | ils/elles auront |
Futur simple of être:
| être | |
| je serai | nous serons |
| tu seras | vous serez |
| il/elle sera | ils/elles seront |
Step 2: Add the past participle
After the helping verb, add the past participle of the main verb. These are the same past participles used in the passé composé: –er verbs become –é, –ir verbs become –i, and –re verbs become –u (with the usual irregular exceptions). If you’re using être as the helping verb, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject, exactly as it does in the passé composé.
Here’s a full conjugation of parler (“to speak”) in the futur antérieur, using avoir:
| parler | |
| j’aurai parlé | nous aurons parlé |
| tu auras parlé | vous aurez parlé |
| il/elle aura parlé | ils/elles auront parlé |
And here’s partir (“to leave”), using être with gender agreement:
| partir | |
| je serai parti(e) | nous serons parti(e)s |
| tu seras parti(e) | vous serez parti(e)(s) |
| il/elle sera parti(e) | ils/elles seront parti(e)s |
When to Use the Futur Antérieur
The futur antérieur has three main use cases. The first two come up regularly in everyday French. The third is more of a reading comprehension skill.
1. To say what will have happened by a certain point
This is the core use of the futur antérieur. It describes a future action viewed from the perspective of its completion: not just that something will happen, but that it will be finished before a certain future moment. The English equivalent is “will have” + past participle.
J’aurai fini ce rapport avant vendredi. (“I will have finished this report by Friday.”)
Dans dix ans, elle aura terminé ses études. (“In ten years, she will have completed her studies.”)
Ils auront mangé avant notre arrivée. (“They will have eaten before we arrive.”)
Each of these sentences involves two future points in time: 1) the moment of completion and 2) another future reference point. The futur antérieur describes the one that comes first.
2. After temporal conjunctions
This is the use that most often catches English speakers off guard, and it will come up frequently in writing and in more formal speech. In English, clauses introduced by words like “when,” “as soon as,” and “once” often take a simple present or present perfect tense, even when the sentence is clearly about the future:
“Call me when you finish.” (present tense)
“We’ll leave as soon as she arrives.” (present tense)
In French, these time clauses require a future tense, because they refer to events that haven’t happened yet (the French perspective on this tense choice is more internally consistent). Specifically, when the action in the subordinate clause will be completed before the main clause action, French requires the futur antérieur, not the futur simple.
The conjunctions that trigger this rule include: quand, lorsque, dès que, aussitôt que, sitôt que, une fois que, après que, tant que.
Appelle-moi quand tu auras fini. (“Call me when you have finished.”)
Nous partirons dès qu’elle sera arrivée. (“We’ll leave as soon as she has arrived.”)
Une fois qu’il aura mangé, il ira se coucher. (“Once he has eaten, he’ll go to bed.”)
Lorsque vous aurez lu ce document, nous en discuterons. (“Once you have read this document, we’ll discuss it.”)
Compare these two sentences to see the distinction in action:
Quand elle viendra, je lui parlerai. (“When she comes, I’ll speak to her.”) → futur simple, because the coming and the speaking are roughly simultaneous
Quand elle sera venue, nous pourrons partir. (“When she has arrived, we can leave.”) → futur antérieur, because her arrival must be complete before we leave
A helpful signal for English speakers: if the subordinate clause in English would naturally use “has/have” + past participle (“when she has arrived,” “once you have read it”), that’s a strong indicator that French needs the futur antérieur.
An important note about si
The futur antérieur is not used after si (“if”) in conditional sentences. The si clause in French always takes the imparfait or plus-que-parfait, never a future tense. The temporal conjunctions listed above are different from conditional si clauses, so be careful not to confuse “when” (temporal) with “if” (conditional) in French grammar.
3. To speculate or infer about the past
This use is less common but useful to recognize. The futur antérieur can express a speaker’s inference or speculation about something that probably happened in the past, roughly equivalent to “must have” or “probably has” in English. Context makes it clear that this is a guess, not a statement of fact.
Il n’est pas là. Il aura oublié. (“He’s not here. He must have forgotten.”)
Elle aura fini ses devoirs avant de sortir. (“She must have finished her homework before going out.”)
This is the same speculative use you’ll find with the futur simple (where il sera malade can mean “he must be sick”), extended to a completed past action.
The Futur Antérieur and the Futur Simple Together
The futur antérieur and the futur simple work as a pair the same way the plus-que-parfait and the passé composé work together in the past. When two future events are in sequence, the action that will be completed first takes the futur antérieur, and the action that comes after takes the futur simple.
| The earlier, completed action | Futur antérieur |
| The later action | Futur simple |
Think of the futur antérieur as “the future before the future.” If the plus-que-parfait is the “past before the past,” the futur antérieur is exactly the same idea shifted forward in time. The pairing is clear in temporal conjunction sentences:
Dès qu’il aura signé le contrat [futur antérieur], nous commencerons [futur simple]. (“As soon as he has signed the contract, we’ll start.”)
Quand tu auras appris le vocabulaire [futur antérieur], la leçon te semblera [futur simple] plus facile. (“Once you have learned the vocabulary, the lesson will seem easier.”)
Irregular Past Participles in the Futur Antérieur
Because the futur antérieur uses the same past participles as the passé composé, any irregular past participles you already know carry over directly. Here are some of the most common ones you’ll encounter:
| Infinitive | Past participle | Futur antérieur (je form) |
| faire | fait | j’aurai fait |
| être | été | j’aurai été |
| avoir | eu | j’aurai eu |
| prendre | pris | j’aurai pris |
| venir | venu | je serai venu(e) |
| voir | vu | j’aurai vu |
| mettre | mis | j’aurai mis |
| écrire | écrit | j’aurai écrit |
Any irregular passé composé form you’ve already learned will serve you equally well here.
Next Steps
The futur antérieur is easier to learn than it might look at first, because it builds directly on things you already know: the futur simple conjugations of avoir and être, plus the past participles from the passé composé. The main thing to internalize is the temporal conjunction rule. After quand, dès que, une fois que and similar words, French requires the futur antérieur when the action in that clause will be completed before the main clause, even though English would use a simple present tense.
If you want to see how the futur antérieur fits alongside the other tenses, our overview of French verb tenses is a good reference. And if you want to practice using it in real conversation rather than just in exercises, working through some examples with a French speaker on a platform like italki will help build that instinct much faster.
