Future Tense in Chinese
In the previous lesson, we have covered how to construct past tense and present tense sentences in Chinese. In this lesson, let’s learn how to express future tense in Chinese!
With no grammatical tenses in Chinese, we use the adverb of time to indicate that the action happened or will be happening. The table below displays the commonly used adverb of times for future tense:
| Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | Pin Yin | English |
| 今晚 | 今晚 | jīn wǎn | tonight |
| 明天 | 明天 | míng tiān | tomorrow |
| 後天 | 后天 | hòu tiān | acquired |
| 下個星期/下週 | 下个星期/下周 | xià gè xīngqí/xià zhōu | next week |
| 兩個星期後/兩週後 | 两个星期后/两周后 | liǎng gè xīngqí hòu/liǎng zhōu hòu | two weeks later |
| 三個星期後/三週後 | 三个星期后/三周后 | sān gè xīngqí hòu/sān zhōu hòu | three weeks later |
| 下個月 | 下个月 | xià gè yuè | next month |
| 兩個月後 | 两个月后 | liǎng gè yuè hòu | two months later |
| 三個月後 | 三个月后 | sān gè yuè hòu | three months later |
| 明年 | 明年 | míng nián | next year |
| 兩年後 | 两年后 | liǎng nián hòu | two years later |
| 三年後 | 三年后 | sān nián hòu | three years later |
| 待會/待會兒 | 待会/待会儿 | dài huì/dài huì er | later |
| 下次 | 下次 | xià cì | next time |
| 將來 | 将来 | jiāng lái | future |
Examples:
今晚我們七點在電影院門口見。
今晚我们七点在电影院门口见。
Jīn wǎn wǒmen qī diǎn zài diànyǐngyuàn ménkǒu jiàn.
We will meet at the cinema door at seven o’clock tonight.
下週我回去上海開會。
下周我回去上海开会。
Xià zhōu wǒ huíqù shànghǎi kāihuì.
I will go to Shanghai for a meeting next week.
明年她想去倫敦留學。
明年她想去伦敦留学。
Míngnián tā xiǎng qù lúndūn liúxué.
She wants to study in London next year.
將來我想成為一名企業家。
将来我想成为一名企业家。
Jiānglái wǒ xiǎng chéngwéi yī míng qǐyè jiā.
I want to be an entrepreneur in the future.
The auxiliary verbs 要 (yào), 會 [会] (huì) and 將 [将] (jiāng) all indicate that an action has not yet happened.
| Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | Pin Yin | English | Remarks |
| 要 | 要 | yào | will/going to | to want/intention |
| 會 | 会 | huì | will/going to | confident prediction (stronger than要) |
| 將 | 将 | jiāng | will/going to | about to happen/soon/will soon |
Structure: Subject + 要 / 會 [会] / 將 [将] + Verb
Examples:
我要去馬爾代夫旅遊。
我要去马尔代夫旅游。
Wǒ yào qù mǎ’ěrdàifū lǚyóu.
I am going to travel to the Maldives.
我無論如何都會支持你。
我无论如何都会支持你。
Wǒ wúlùn rúhé dūhuì zhīchí nǐ.
I will support you no matter what.
會議將於明天舉行。
会议将于明天举行。
Huìyì jiāng yú míngtiān jǔxíng.
The meeting will be held tomorrow.
Note that those three auxiliary verbs do not always indicate future tense. As always, it depends on the context. One of a good example is 會 [会] (huì) also works as a modal verb ‘can’.
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