Indicative past future
The past future expresses an action that will be completed in the future before another action itself in the future. We also speak of previous future tense. It is found both in subordinate propositions to express an action that will be completed before the second one and in independent propositions to express an action that will be completed at that time.
Le train sera déjà parti quand tu arriveras.
Dans deux ans, les travaux seront terminés.
To be able to form the past future, it is necessary to know how to conjugate the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" in the simple future and to know how to form the past participle. The main difficulty of the past future comes from the agreements with the past participle.
Here is an example of a verb conjugated in the past future tense with auxiliaries "avoir" and "être":
| Subject | Auxiliary (avoir) | Past participle (finir) |
|---|---|---|
| J' | aurai | fini |
| Tu | auras | fini |
| Il | aura | fini |
| Nous | aurons | fini |
| Vous | aurez | fini |
| Ils | auront | fini |
| Subject | Auxiliary (être) | Past participle (venir) |
|---|---|---|
| Je | serai | venu |
| Tu | seras | venu |
| Il | sera | venu |
| Nous | serons | venus |
| Vous | serez | venus |
| Ils | seront | venus |
- It is immediately apparent that the question of the agreement arises. With the auxiliary "être", the agreement is made with the subject from where the "s" came because the subject is put for several people. If it is a woman speaking, an "e" is also added to indicate the feminine: "je serai venue".
- The agreement is more delicate with the auxiliary "avoir" because it is necessary to make the agreement with the direct object complement when it is placed in front and not with the subject.
- The past future tense is formed from the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" conjugated to the simple future tense to which the past participle is added.
- With the auxiliary "être", we agree the past participle with the subject.
- With the auxiliary "avoir", the agreement of the past participle is done with the direct object complement when it is placed in front of it.