Planning your weekend? Making a promise? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the future in Italian using il futuro semplice. We’ll keep it simple and practical: you’ll get clear rules, common time expressions, useful irregulars, and plenty of mini-exercises along the way.

What the futuro semplice does

Use the futuro semplice to:

• talk about plans and schedules: Domani lavorerò da casa.
• make promises or offers: Ti chiamerò stasera.
• predictions: Pioverà domani.
• spontaneous decisions: Ok, lo farò!
• polite/soft certainty (also a guess about the present): Sarà in ufficio. = He/She is probably at the office.

Notice that last one: Italians often use the future to express probability in the present.

How to form the futuro semplice (regular verbs)

Take the infinitive and add the future endings. For -are verbs, the vowel changes to -er- in the stem (parlare → parler-). Endings are the same for all three groups:

• io: -ò
• tu: -ai
• lui/lei: -à
• noi: -emo
• voi: -ete
• loro: -anno

Here’s a model with parlare (to speak):

Try it with a regular verb in context:

Domani io con Marco.

Let’s practice an -ire verb too:

Noi a Roma domani mattina.

Io parlerà domani. → Io parlerò domani. For io, the ending is -ò (with accent), not -à.

Must-know irregular stems

Some very common verbs have a short, irregular future stem, then take the same endings (-ò, -ai, -à, -emo, -ete, -anno):

• essere → sar- (sarò, sarai, …)
• avere → avr- (avrò, avrai, …)
• andare → andr-
• fare → far-
• dare → dar-
• stare → star-
• venire → verr-
• vedere → vedr-
• potere → potr-
• dovere → dovr-
• volere → vorr-
• sapere → sapr-

Here’s essere as a model:

Time expressions you’ll actually use

These words pair naturally with the futuro semplice.

Put one into a sentence:

Mini-dialogue practice

Arrange the conversation about weekend plans.

More form practice

Try two quick ones—watch the spelling and irregular stems.

Io la bolletta online stasera.

Loro a cena da noi domani.

Domani mangierò tardi. → Domani mangerò tardi. With -GIARE/-CIARE you drop the i: mangiare → mangerò; cominciare → comincerai.

Quick recap

• Same endings for all verbs: -ò, -ai, -à, -emo, -ete, -anno.
• -ARE verbs change to -er- before adding endings: parlare → parlerò.
• Spelling: pagherò, cercherai; mangerò, cominceremo.
• Irregular stems: sar-, avr-, andr-, verr-, potr-, dovr-, vorr-, sapr-, far-, dar-, star-, vedr-.
• Use the future for plans, promises, predictions, and even present guesses (Sarà a casa.).

Keep mixing the future with real-life time expressions: domani, dopodomani, tra due giorni, la prossima settimana. A few minutes of practice each day and… parlerai con sicurezza molto presto! Buono studio!