The futur antérieur

Mode

Indicatif

Level

B2

Shape

Compound

Negation

ne … pas

Verbs in Phonique

700+

In the app

Premium

The futur antérieur is the future perfect: something that will already be finished by a point still ahead of you. It is the least used of the compound tenses, but it has one job - the quand construction - where nothing else will do.

How it’s formed

The futur simple of the auxiliary, then the past participle:

avoir or être in the future + past participle

Then the participle, unchanged from every other compound tense:

The negative wraps the auxiliary: je n’aurai pas terminé.

Agreement

Être verbs agree with the subject, as always:

When to use it

1. Completed before a future point. Quand tu arriveras, j’aurai terminé. - By the time you arrive, I’ll have finished.
2. After quand, dès que, aussitôt que, une fois que, when one action must finish before the next. Dès que j’aurai fini, je sortirai.
3. With a deadline. J’aurai fini le rapport avant vendredi. - I’ll have finished the report before Friday.
4. A supposition about the past. Il aura oublié. - He must have forgotten.

That fourth use is worth knowing even if you never produce it, because you will hear it. Elle aura raté son train is a guess about why someone is late, not a prediction - the future form carries the speaker’s uncertainty about a past event.

Common mistakes

Common questions

Is this "will have done"?

Yes. J’aurai terminé is “I will have finished”. Like the English future perfect, it looks forward to a point in the future and describes something already complete by then.

When is it obligatory rather than optional?

After quand, lorsque, dès que and aussitôt que, when the first action finishes before the second starts. Quand j’aurai fini, je t’appellerai - when I’ve finished, I’ll call you. English uses a present perfect there; French requires this tense.

Can it express a guess?

Yes, and it’s common. Il aura oublié means “he must have forgotten” - a supposition about the past, not a statement about the future. Context makes which reading is meant obvious.

How common is it really?

Less common than the tenses around it, but not rare, and it’s the natural way to say “by then I’ll have…”. It also turns up in the quand construction often enough that avoiding it produces noticeably clumsy French.