Futur antérieur (future perfect)

Quand j'aurai fini mes devoirs, je sortirai.When I've finished my homework, I'll go out.

French has a tense for describing something that will already be complete by a certain point in the future. The futur antérieur — "future anterior," or future perfect — marks that earlier, completed event, while the futur simple marks the later one. Notice the English translation doesn't even use a future form in the when-clause — it shifts to the present perfect (I've finished) instead. French does the opposite: it keeps both clauses in a future tense, just two different ones.

Quick shortcut: futur simple of avoir or être + past participle. It's built exactly like the plus-que-parfait, just with the auxiliary pushed one step forward instead of back.

How it's formed

The auxiliary verb (avoir or être) goes in the futur simple, followed by the past participle — the same participle you already use for the passé composé and plus-que-parfait.

The same rules you already know from the passé composé and the plus-que-parfait still apply:

• Which auxiliary? The same verb takes the same auxiliary it always does — a small group of verbs (mostly movement or change of state) plus all pronominal verbs use être; most others use avoir.
• Agreement with être: the participle agrees with the subject — elle sera partie, ils seront partis.
• Agreement with avoir: the participle normally doesn't change (elle aura mangé), but agrees with a preceding direct object when there is one.

Pronominal verbs use être too, but agreement isn't automatic there — it depends on whether the pronoun se is acting as a direct object. When it is, the participle agrees with it, just like elle in tu te seras reposé(e) (you will have rested) or ils in ils se seront rencontrés (they will have met). But when the sentence already has its own direct object, se becomes an indirect object instead and the participle stays unchanged: elle se sera lavé les mains (she'll have washed her hands), not lavée.

Sequencing two future events

The main job of the futur antérieur is to place one future event before another one — the same relationship the plus-que-parfait marks in the past, but shifted forward into the future. This comes up often after quand, lorsque, dès que ("as soon as"), aussitôt que ("as soon as") and une fois que ("once") — but only when the earlier event needs to be presented as already finished. In that case it takes the futur antérieur, while the later event stays in the futur simple; these conjunctions don't require the futur antérieur on their own.

• Quand tu auras terminé ton repas, nous partirons. (When you've finished your meal, we'll leave.)
• Dès qu'elle sera arrivée, elle nous appellera. (As soon as she's arrived, she'll call us.)
• Une fois que vous aurez lu le contrat, vous pourrez le signer. (Once you've read the contract, you'll be able to sign it.)

You've already seen that a future quand-clause takes the futur simple, not the present the way English does. The futur antérieur extends the same logic one step further: when the quand-clause event needs to be already finished before the main clause happens, it takes the futur antérieur instead of the plain futur simple. Two plain futur simple verbs (quand tu finiras, je partirai) already express a simple future sequence; the futur antérieur goes one step further and marks the first event as completed before the second one happens.

What will have happened by a given time

The futur antérieur also stands on its own, with no quand-clause at all, to say something will be finished by a stated future deadline:

• D'ici demain, j'aurai terminé ce rapport. (By tomorrow, I'll have finished this report.)
• Dans une heure, elle sera partie. (In an hour, she'll have left.)
• À la fin de l'année, ils auront déménagé. (By the end of the year, they'll have moved.)

D'ici ("by") and dans + a time span ("in") are the two most common signal phrases for this use.

Also used for a likely past event

Less often, the futur antérieur expresses a guess about something that has probably already happened — the same way the plain futur simple can express a guess about the present (Il est en retard, il sera coincé dans les embouteillages — "he's probably stuck in traffic"). Here, the guess is about the past instead:

Elle n'a pas répondu — elle aura oublié son téléphone. (She didn't answer — she's probably forgotten her phone.)

This use is worth recognizing when you meet it, but the sequencing and deadline uses above are what you'll need to produce yourself far more often.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Quand j'aurai finir mes devoirs... → ✅ Quand j'aurai fini mes devoirs... (the auxiliary is followed by the past participle, never the infinitive)
• ❌ Elle aura allée au marché. → ✅ Elle sera allée au marché. (aller takes être, not avoir)
• ❌ Elle sera allé au marché. → ✅ Elle sera allée au marché. (with être, the participle agrees with the subject — here, feminine)
• ❌ Quand je finis mes devoirs, je sortirai. → ✅ Quand je finirai mes devoirs, je sortirai. / ✅ Quand j'aurai fini mes devoirs, je sortirai. (a present tense borrowed from English "when I finish" doesn't work here at all — French needs a future tense in this clause; the plain futur simple is enough for a simple sequence, and the futur antérieur if you want to stress that finishing happens first)

Quick check

Put the verb in brackets into the futur antérieur.

1. Quand nous ____ (arriver), nous vous téléphonerons.
2. Dès qu'elle ____ (finir) son travail, elle partira.
3. D'ici la semaine prochaine, il ____ (recevoir) la réponse.
4. Une fois que vous ____ (se reposer), vous vous sentirez mieux.

Key takeaways

• The futur antérieur = futur simple of avoir or être + past participle — built like the plus-que-parfait, one step forward in time instead of back.
• After quand, lorsque, dès que, aussitôt que or une fois que, it marks the event that finishes before the other future event, which stays in the futur simple.
• It also stands alone to say something will be complete by a stated future point, often with d'ici or dans + a time span.
• Auxiliary choice and agreement follow the same rules as the passé composé and plus-que-parfait.
• Less often, it expresses a guess about something that has probably already happened, mirroring how the plain futur simple can guess about the present.