Talking about future plans in French

Level A2

Talking about future plans in French

French uses present-tense aller followed by an infinitive for intentions, much like English “going to”: je vais means “I'm going to,” and on va can mean “we're going to.” On is common in conversation and takes a singular verb, while nous takes plural forms such as prévoyons. To say “plan to,” use prévoir de before the infinitive; de becomes d’ before a vowel sound, as in d’étudier. For an arrangement, French can use the ordinary present with a future time expression where English often uses “am/is/are” plus an -ing form.

Words for planning and changing plans

Intentions with aller + infinitive

Sujet aller au présent + verbe à l’infinitif + expression de temps futur.

Saying what you plan to do with prévoir de

Sujet prévoir de + verbe à l’infinitif + expression de temps futur.

Using the present tense for future arrangements

Sujet + verbe au présent + expression de temps futur.

Explaining a change of plans

Say what changed, then give the new arrangement: “J’ai changé mes plans. J’étudie samedi.” J’ai changé and nous avons changé use avoir plus changé to report a completed change; the following present-tense verb refers to the future because of samedi or dimanche. French uses a possessive here, as English does: mes plans means “my plans,” and nos plans means “our plans.”

Use tu with friends and people you address informally, and vous for respectful address to one person or for addressing several people; vos goes with vous. The yes/no questions here keep statement word order and use question intonation: “Tu étudies vendredi ?” and “Vous travaillez ici samedi ?” “Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire demain ?” uses qu’est-ce que before subject + verb, while “Quels sont vos projets pour vendredi ?” places sont before the subject vos projets. These questions do not add an English-style question auxiliary. For a particular upcoming day, say vendredi or samedi without a preposition; le vendredi usually means “on Fridays.”

Asking about study plans informally with tu

Asking about work plans respectfully with vous

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