Hindi first-person futures say what I or we will do, what is expected to happen to us, and—especially with an agentive verb—what we intend or promise to do. Their central forms are मैं करूँगा/करूँगी and हम करेंगे/करेंगी. Unlike English will do, the Hindi word itself marks first person and also reflects the speaker's or group's gender composition.
This page focuses on the first-person forms. The preceding page on future personal bases gives the whole person system; full paradigms of individual verbs belong in Verb Reference. Unless noted otherwise, the forms here are neutral contemporary Hindi, natural in both everyday speech and ordinary writing.
The compact pattern
Remove infinitive -ना and build a first-person base. Singular मैं normally takes -ूँ-; plural हम takes -ें-. Then add the gender-number future element.
| Subject | Controller | करना | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| मैं | masculine speaker | करूँगा | I will do |
| मैं | feminine speaker | करूँगी | I will do |
| हम | male or mixed group | करेंगे | we will do |
| हम | all-female group | करेंगी | we will do |
मैं रात को जवाब दूँगा।
maĩ rāt ko javāb dū̃gā.
I will reply tonight. (male speaker)
मैं रात को जवाब दूँगी।
maĩ rāt ko javāb dū̃gī.
I will reply tonight. (female speaker)
हम अगले हफ़्ते जयपुर जाएँगे।
ham agle hafte jaypur jāẽge.
We will go to Jaipur next week. (male or mixed group)
हम अगले हफ़्ते जयपुर जाएँगी।
ham agle hafte jaypur jāẽgī.
We will go to Jaipur next week. (all-female group)
The final -गी can be feminine singular or feminine plural. Number is recovered from the personal base and subject: करूँगी is singular, while करेंगी is plural. English hides both distinctions behind the unchanged auxiliary will.
A finite future needs no present auxiliary
The simple future is already a finite predicate. Hindi does not add हूँ or हैं after it. This contrasts with layered forms such as habitual मैं करता हूँ and present perfect मैंने किया है, whose final auxiliary supplies present-tense anchoring.
मैं कल घर से काम करूँगी।
maĩ kal ghar se kām karū̃gī.
I will work from home tomorrow. (female speaker)
हम बैठक के बाद बात करेंगे।
ham baiṭhak ke bād bāt kareṅge.
We will talk after the meeting. (male or mixed group)
Hindi predicates are best understood as layers rather than one-word translations of English tenses. Here the lexical stem कर-, first-person base material, and future agreement form one word. There is no separate equivalent of English will. In a compound verb, only the final verb receives these finite layers: मैं भेज दूँगा “I will send it off / make sure it is sent,” not two separately inflected verbs.
High-frequency base changes
Consonant-final stems are usually transparent: लिखना → लिखूँगा/लिखूँगी; लिखेंगे/लिखेंगी. Several extremely common vowel-final verbs have contracted or extended bases that must be learned as forms, not guessed by attaching a suffix to the visible infinitive.
| Infinitive | मैं, masculine | मैं, feminine | हम, male/mixed | हम, all-female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| जाना | जाऊँगा | जाऊँगी | जाएँगे | जाएँगी |
| आना | आऊँगा | आऊँगी | आएँगे | आएँगी |
| लेना | लूँगा | लूँगी | लेंगे | लेंगी |
| देना | दूँगा | दूँगी | देंगे | देंगी |
| होना | होऊँगा | होऊँगी | होंगे | होंगी |
First-person होना also has the established shorter variants हूँगा/हूँगी alongside होऊँगा/होऊँगी. The longer forms in the table make the regular first-person base easier to see; both sets occur in contemporary Standard Hindi.
मैं रास्ते से दवा ले आऊँगा।
maĩ rāste se davā le āū̃gā.
I will pick up the medicine on the way. (male speaker)
हम आपको सुबह ख़बर देंगी।
ham āpko subah xabar deṅgī.
We will let you know in the morning. (all-female group; respectful addressee)
There is no honest shortcut that generates लूँगा from every spelling detail of लेना. Memorize the small high-frequency set, while using the productive pattern for ordinary consonant-final stems.
Intention, promise, and prediction
With a controllable action, a first-person future often carries a volitional reading: it presents the event as the speaker's plan, decision, offer, or promise. Context determines the force; the morphology itself does not encode a special “promise tense.”
चिंता मत कीजिए, मैं फ़ाइल आज ही भेज दूँगी।
cintā mat kījie, maĩ fāil āj hī bhej dū̃gī.
Don't worry; I will send the file today. (female speaker, reassuring promise)
हम खर्च बराबर बाँट लेंगे।
ham kharc barābar bā̃ṭ leṅge.
We will split the expense equally. (male or mixed group; agreed plan)
With a non-voluntary state, the same future is predictive rather than intentional: मैं अगले महीने दिल्ली में होऊँगा predicts the speaker's location; it does not mean that “being” is itself an act of will. The detailed contrast is covered in predictive versus volitional future.
Negatives and questions
Neutral नहीं normally stands immediately before the future predicate. It does not change the first-person base or agreement. A yes–no question may add clause-initial क्या; there is no English-style inversion of will and subject.
मैं इस बार देर नहीं करूँगा।
maĩ is bār der nahīṃ karū̃gā.
I will not be late this time. (male speaker)
क्या हम समय पर पहुँचेंगी?
kyā ham samay par pahũceṅgī?
Will we arrive on time? (all-female group)
हम बिना पूछे फ़ैसला नहीं करेंगे।
ham binā pūche faislā nahīṃ kareṅge.
We will not decide without asking. (male or mixed group)
In a promise, नहीं can express refusal or commitment not to act. In a prediction, it simply predicts non-occurrence. Prosody and discourse make that distinction; the word order can be identical.
When “we” is not the agreement controller
Not every English sentence whose subject is we uses a Hindi first-person future. In necessity constructions, the experiencer or obligated actor is often oblique हमें, while an unmarked infinitival phrase or its object controls agreement.
हमें कल ये चार अर्ज़ियाँ जाँचनी पड़ेंगी।
hameṃ kal ye cār arziyā̃ jā̃cnī paṛeṅgī.
We will have to check these four applications tomorrow.
The semantic actors are “we,” but हमें is not an unmarked nominative subject. Feminine plural अर्ज़ियाँ controls जाँचनी पड़ेंगी. Copying English person agreement would produce the wrong Hindi structure.
Similarly, हमें कल निकलना है is a present-tense obligation with future reference, not a simple first-person future. A time word such as कल does not turn the infinitive निकलना into a finite future.
Common Mistakes
Attaching the future ending to the infinitive
❌ मैं कल जानागा।
Incorrect — the infinitive जाना cannot serve as the finite first-person future.
✅ मैं कल जाऊँगा।
maĩ kal jāū̃gā.
I will go tomorrow. (male speaker)
Using singular morphology with हम
❌ हम शाम को लौटूँगे।
Incorrect — हम requires the plural first-person base लौटें-.
✅ हम शाम को लौटेंगे।
ham śām ko lauṭeṅge.
We will return in the evening. (male or mixed group)
Treating every group as masculine plural
❌ हम दोनों बहनें कल आएँगे।
Incorrect in standard agreement — an all-female group takes आएँगी.
✅ हम दोनों बहनें कल आएँगी।
ham donoṃ bahneṃ kal āẽgī.
We two sisters will come tomorrow.
Adding a present auxiliary
❌ मैं आपको फ़ोन करूँगी हूँ।
Incorrect — करूँगी is already finite.
✅ मैं आपको फ़ोन करूँगी।
maĩ āpko fon karū̃gī.
I will call you. (female speaker)
Making an oblique actor trigger first person
❌ हमें दो चिट्ठियाँ लिखूँगी।
Incorrect for the intended necessity meaning — हमें does not license a bare first-person future here.
✅ हमें दो चिट्ठियाँ लिखनी पड़ेंगी।
hameṃ do ciṭṭhiyā̃ likhnī paṛeṅgī.
We will have to write two letters.
Key Takeaways
- मैं uses -ूँ-: करूँगा/करूँगी. हम uses -ें-: करेंगे/करेंगी.
- Gender belongs to the final future element; an all-female plural group takes -गी.
- The simple future is finite without हूँ/हैं.
- First-person forms often express intention with controllable actions, but they can also make predictions.
- English semantic I/we is not enough: oblique मुझे/हमें may fail to control agreement.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Future personal basesA2 — Build Hindi future predicates from person-number-honorific bases such as करूँ-, करे-, करो-, and करें- before adding gender-number endings.
- Future suffixes -gā -gī -geA2 — Choose -गा, -गी, or -गे for gender-number and honorific agreement after the appropriate Hindi future personal base.
- Predictive versus volitional futureA2 — Distinguish Hindi future forms that forecast an event from those that express intention, willingness, offers, promises, or refusal.
- Second-person future by honorific levelA2 — Choose तू, तुम, and आप future forms accurately across intimacy, familiarity, respect, gender, number, negation, and questions.
- Future tense versus probabilityB1 — Decide whether Hindi future morphology locates an event later or marks an inference about a present, habitual, ongoing, or completed situation.