Future Perfect in Italian
In Italian there are two future tenses: futuro semplice (simple future) and futuro anteriore (future perfect), also known as futuro composto.
Futuro anteriore, which I will explain in this lesson, is used to describe future actions that will have been completed before another future event takes place.
Quando avrai finito di lavare i piatti, potrai uscire.
When you have finished washing the dishes, you can go out.
As you can see in the example above, the action of washing the dishes is conjugated in the futuro anteriore,because it describes an event that is expected to happen before a time of reference in the future.
The action of going out is, instead, conjugated in the futuro semplice because it is the future event taken as point of reference.
As all complex verbs, the future perfect in Italian is formed by an auxiliary verb (essere or avere) conjugated in the future simple + past participle.
Italian Futuro Anteriore
Structure
Let me show you the conjugation of two Italian verbs so that you can see its structure with both auxiliary verbs.
Remember: the choice of the auxiliary depends on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive. The former takes avere, the latter takes essere.
| Mangiare (with avere)
to eat |
Andare (with essere)
to go |
| Io avrò mangiato | Io sarò partito/a |
| Tu avrai mangiato | Tu sarai partito/a |
| Lui/Lei avrà mangiato | Lui/Lei sarà partito/a |
| Noi avremo mangiato | Noi saremo partiti/e |
| Voi avrete mangiato | Voi sarete partiti/e |
| Loro avranno mangiato | Loro saranno partiti/e |
As you might know already, when you use the verb essere (to be) as an auxiliary, the past participle of the verb must agree in number and gender with the subject performing the action.
Regular past participles are very easy to form. Just get rid of the ending of the infinitive form and add the past participle ending:
- Verbs ending in ARE use ATO: mangi + are à mangi + ato = mangiato (to eat – eaten)
- Verbs ending in ERE use UTO: cred + ere à cred + uto = creduto (to believe – believed)
- Verbs ending in IRE use ITO: fin + ire à fin + ito = finito (to finish – finished)
Irregular past participles are a bit more tricky, so arm yourself with patience and learn them by heart!
Uses
As I mentioned before, we mainly use futuro composto to talk about future events that will be finished before something else will take place.
However, in Italian we can also use the future to make assumptions, hypotheses, and probabilistic thoughts about something that happens either in the present or has happened in the past. Of course, we use respectively the simple future and future perfect to do so.
The English equivalent for this use would be “must have”.
Let me show you some examples:
Non sono ancora arrivati? Si saranno persi!
They haven’t arrived yet? They must have gotten lost.
Perché Marco è tornato indietro? Non so, si sarà dimenticato qualcosa.
Why did Marco come back? I don’t know; he must have forgotten something.
Bella macchina! Probabilmente l’hai pagata molto. = L’avrai pagata molto.
Nice car! You must have paid it a lot.
Speak Your Future
Now that you’ve learned the structure of the Italian future perfect, you are ready to move in time when telling your stories in Italian.
Learning new verb tenses gives you the freedom to detach from the here and now to talk about events and actions that occur in different moments.
Practice its conjugation, its different uses, and get ready to tell what you will be doing and have done in the future. In no time, “avrai imparato tutto” (you will have learned everything!).
