The basic formation of the future tense is very easy to learn. If you have learned the present active indicative endings you are already more than halfway there:

Simply take the present active indicative endings and add a sigma before each one:

The sigma infix is a future time morpheme.

You will observe that some future stems have a stem that is different from that of the present. In many cases the future stem is the "true" verb stem which is also used in other tenses, except in the present where it is modified due to the insertion of a durative (or imperfective) morpheme. Here are some examples:

Stem changes can occur in the future tense because of the incompatibility of the sigma infix with certain consonants at the end of the stem. These changes are easily identifiable, however, since they occur in accordance with the following patterns.

Make sure you read carefully Black's discussion of amalgamation (Learn §20).

A case where observing accent is crucial to interpretation is the future active indicative of me,nw (I abide), which is menw/ (notice the circumflex accent).

Later we will learn more about the formation of a special class of verbs called liquid verbs.

(1) As with the present tense, in order to parse you first of all need to know the future active indicative personal endings. Remember that the only difference between the pres act ind and the fut act ind endings is that the latter have the sigma infix throughout.

(2) Secondly, you need to determine what the stem of the verb is in order to parse it.

Default Procedure

In order to find the stem of a future verb, in many instances you can follow the same procedure that you do with present tense verbs, i.e., remove the w from the verb's lexical entry in order to discover its stem. Then you can parse the verb by identifying the fut act ind personal suffix that is attached to the stem.

The verb in the foregoing example may be parsed thus:

Future Stem Procedure

However, as we have seen, sometimes the stem of a future verb is different from the lexical (pres act ind) form. In these cases you will have to recall what the "true" stem of the verb is (consult Black's vocabulary lists).

The future form used in the above example is the first verb in the following samples of future verb parsing:

Note that even though each of these verbs needs to be identified by its "true" stem, you still must provide the lexical form when parsing (however, for memory's sake, you may wish to include the "true" stem in parentheses after the lexical form).

In future tense verbs the time of the action is usually highlighted more than the kind of action.

Most future verbs have an aoristic aspect, i.e., the action is viewed as a whole without focusing on its precise nature.

This is why many future verbs simply have a predictive force, as in the following example:

bapti,sei evn pneu,mati a`gi,w| kai. puri,
he will baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire
(Matt 3:11)

(1) Imperative. Expresses a command.

a[gioi e;sesqe( o[ti evgw. a[gio,j eivmi
you shall be holy, because I am holy (1 Pet 1:16)

The future indicative of eivmi, appears in this example (cf. Black, Learn §89).
The Greek verb "to be" will be introduced in the next section of this module.

(2) Deliberative. Used in questions in which the subject inquires about or considers a course of action.

ti, poih,swÈ
What shall I do? (Luke 20:13b)

(3) Gnomic. Used to express a general or universal truth, often in aphoristic sayings.

gnw,sesqe th.n avlh,qeian( kai. h` avlh,qeia evleuqerw,sei u`ma/j
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall liberate you (John 8:33b)

For more on the uses of the future tense, cf. Black, Still Greek, 108-109.