As previously mentioned, the futuro do conjuntivofuture subjunctive allows us to talk about the conditions that must be met in order for a potential future action to occur, (i.e. “If this goes well, I will do that” or “When we get home, I will do that”). This tense appears in subordinate adverbial clauses (i.e. clauses which function like an adverb), as well as in relative clauses. It often goes along with the conjunction seif or others such as:
- assim queas soon as, once
- sempre quewhenever
- quandowhen
- enquantowhile, as long as
- comohow
- o quewhat
Verb Conjugation
Regular Verbs
With regular verbs, the futuro do conjuntivo is conjugated exactly the same as the infinitivo pessoal (personal infinitive). All you need to do is add the correct terminations to the infinitive, without removing any letters. Both the 1st and 3rd person singular stay exactly the same as the infinitive itself, making the endings as follows: (none), –es, (none), –mos, –em.
Here’s an example of how to conjugate the regular verbs comerto eat and falarto speak :
Irregular verbs
Regarding irregular verbs, you might find the following shortcut useful: Conjugate the verb in the 3rd person plural of the pretérito perfeito (simple past tense), remove the -am ending, then add the same endings shown above, according to each subject: (none), -es, (none), -mos, -em.
Let’s try it out with the irregular verb ir:
- Conjugate the verb in the 3rd person plural simple past tense: foram
- Drop the -am ending: for-
- Now, make it hypothetical! To put it in the futuro do conjuntivo, add the conjunction (such as se) and add the correct ending depending on who we’re talking about:
se eu forif I go
se tu foresif you go
se ela forif she goes
se nós formosif we go
se eles foremif they go
More Examples
Se levares o carro, tens de pôr gasolinaIf you take the car, you have to put gas in it
Assim que chegarem, avisemAs soon as you (pl.) arrive, let me know
Enquanto for estudante, tenho descontoAs long as I'm a student, I get a discount
Faz como quiseresDo it however you want
Quando tiver fome, faço o almoçoOnce I'm hungry, I'll make lunch
Futuro do Conjuntivo vs. Imperfeito do Conjuntivo
You will probably come across a lot of “if” statements in both the imperfeito do conjuntivo and the futuro do conjuntivo, since both can be used to talk about potential future actions. So how do you know when to use which tense?
The difference is that the imperfeito version typically goes along with “if” when talking about a completely hypothetical situation, i.e. something that is unrealistic or unlikely to take place / to have taken place. The futuro version, on the other hand, is usually used along with “if” to talk about a likely or inevitable outcome.
Se eu for passear, vais comigo?If I go for a walk, will you go with me? (futuro do conjuntivo)
Se eu fosse passear, ias comigo?If I went for a walk, would you go with me? (imperfeito do conjuntivo)
While they’re both hypothetical, in the first example, the subject is seriously thinking about going for a walk in the near future. In the second example, the speaker may want to know how the listener feels about walks in general, his company, and/or if they’d join him on a walk some (unspecified) day.
Futuro do Conjuntivo vs. Infinitivo Pessoal
Many (but not all!) irregular verbs are going to have a different conjugation in the infinitivo pessoal (personal infinitive) and the futuro do conjuntivo. However, as we said earlier, regular verbs share the same conjugation in both tenses. So how can you tell the difference between the two? As usual, context is key! Remember that the futuro do conjuntivo is generally used to talk about the conditions that need to be met for a likely outcome to occur.
Conjunction + Futuro do Conjuntivo
As such, the conjunctions used in the sentence can sometimes give you a clue. The futuro do conjuntivo must be preceded by a conjunction, whereas the infinitivo pessoal does not (necessarily) have to. For example:
- Infinitivo pessoal: É melhor vocês porem a mesaIt's better you (pl.) set the table, You (pl.) had better set the table
To say something similar in the futuro do conjuntivo, we could use the conjunction seif , which results in a slightly different meaning:
- Futuro do conjuntivo: É melhor se forem vocês a pôr a mesaIt's better if you were the ones to set the table
In the first example, the focus is on you (pl.) doing the action, i.e. commenting that this is something you should do. In the second example, it’s about commenting on the hypothetical possibility of you (pl.) being the ones to do the action, as opposed to someone else doing it. Thus, you can see how they are similar, but the second makes the meaning more conditional.
Para + Infinitivo Pessoal
While we’re on the subject, let’s talk about when the personal infinitive can be preceded by a conjunction. While the future subjunctive appears in adverbial and relative clauses, the personal infinitive appears in substantive ones, preceded by the conjunction para and with verbs that indicate an order. Let’s try it with the regular verb começar:
- Infinitivo pessoal: Ele disse para começares a comerHe told you to start eating, He said for you to start eating
To use the same verb in the future subjunctive, the conjugation is the same. However, notice that we needed to make a few changes, and even added another clause to the sentence. This way we are discussing a potential outcome based on the condition that “you start eating”:
Quite tough but these constructions are so important and of use everyday that I will soldier on to master them…….well, “master” is a bit of an overstatement.
Bom dia,
Foi muito instrutivo, obrigada.
Nunca ouvi falar de isto – e entretanto deparas-te com essas formas muitas vezes!
Xau
Acabo de estudar o futuro do conjuntivo com a minha professora. É bem difícil mas esta lição ajudou- me perceber. Obrigada por uma explicação tão claro!
“Uma explicação tão CLARA”!
The explanation regarding the personal infinitive versus the future conjunctive is really terrific. You took a subtle and difficult distinction and made it clear.
Thank you!
This explanation helped so much because I was struggling to identify the difference between Futuro do Conjuntivo and Infinitivo Pessoal!
I also didn’t realise that conjuntivo is subjuntivo, so thank you for clarifying this!
Why in “Assim que chegarem, avisem .” conjuntivo presente for avisem ? The other examples all have the indicative.
The present subjunctive is used as an imperative of sorts for grammatical persons that don’t have true imperative forms (which only exist for the second-person singular and plural with tu and vós).
Vocês is now the most used form of the plural you, but grammatically, it’s actually conjugated as a third-person plural. This means it doesn’t have an imperative form. So, in this imperative sentence with vocês, the present subjunctive has to stand in.
Note that there’s another example here that uses the imperative – but the real one, in that case: “Faz como quiseres” (second-person singular with tu)
The Imperative
In this phrase
Ele disse para começares a comer
why in this case are you not using an indirect pronoun for dizer to clarify the recipient of the instuction ie you (pl) or them in other words how is this understood in the construction?
Olá! You can still add an object pronoun if you’d like, but in this case, it’s also absolutely fine to omit it because the second verb form already clarifies who we are referring to –> “começares” is a second-person singular conjugation, so from that we know he’s talking to “you” (singular) 🙂
se (suh) with following consonant and se (see) with following vowel. Is this a general rule?
Olá. Yes, that’s what typically happens with the pronunciation of the E (more of a usual pattern than a rule that needs to be followed) 🙂 This Learning Note covers this and other pronunciation variations: Pronunciation Variations
Hi! As others have mentioned, thank you so much for making such complex grammar concepts much easier to grasp! I love the organization and structure of this program as well as all the variety of activities. On to my question 🙂
At the end of this lesson, the sentence in Portuguese is : Ele disse que se comerçares a comer, fala contigo. The translation is …..he’ll talk to you, but the verb fala is conjugated in the present tense, right? Why isn’t it « falarei contigo» , conjugated in the future?
Thank you too for your feedback – it’s really kind!
Indeed, the verb is conjugated in the present tense, but there’s a clear future outlook in the sentence. This is something that happens often in Portuguese (in informal contexts): instead of directly using future tense conjugations, which tend to sound a bit stiff for us, we simply use the present tense to express future ideas. This Learning Note gets into more detail on this topic: Talking About the Future in Portuguese
By the way, the right future conjugation to use here would be “falará” (third-person singular). “Falarei” is the first-person singular 🙂
Ok! Gotcha 😀 Thank you! It makes sense when reading the Portuguese sentence, but it is confusing for me to translate from English back to Portuguese because it is just not said exactly the same way. I just need to start thinking in Portuguese. 😀
In Brazil, they kind of no longer use the second person singular nor the second person plural. Is it the contrary in Portugal?
Olá 🙂 In Brazil, although “você” is the default choice for the informal 2nd-person singular, in some regions, “tu” is also commonly used, usually paired with third-person verb conjugations (e.g. “tu é” instead of “tu és”). “Vós” is indeed rare. In Portugal, “tu” is ubiquitous in daily life, while the everyday use of “vós” is mostly restricted to some northern regions. In both countries, “vós” has been replaced by “vocês” for the most part.
Uh uh. ‘Falarei’ is first person singular. But great explanations.
Concordo, explicas os aspectos mais difíceis da gramática de uma forma muito clara e concisa. Obrigado.
Could you please clarify the conjugation here “Se eu fosse passear, ias comigo?”, shouldn’t it be irias here? As it was described in conditional mode lesson: take infinitve plus endings
Olá. “Irias” would be the true conditional conjugation, yes. What we have here instead is an imperfect tense conjugation (“ias”), but being used with a conditional intention, which is a very common idiomatic option for us. This is discussed at the end of this Learning Note: The Conditional | Practice Portuguese