One of the cleanest spoken-versus-written divides in Brazilian Portuguese is the fate of the simple future. The textbook gives you a full conjugation — falarei, falarás, falará, falaremos, falarão — and then real life quietly retires most of it from conversation. In everyday spoken Brazilian, the one-word future sounds bookish, formal, or even a little theatrical. This page documents what Brazilians actually say, so you don't end up speaking like a nineteenth-century novel.
The pragmatic reality
In casual speech, the simple future is largely avoided. Its job is taken over by the periphrastic future (vou + infinitive) and, very often, by the simple present plus a time word. Look at what changes when you move from textbook to street:
| Textbook (simple future) | What Brazilians say | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Amanhã irei ao mercado. | Amanhã eu vou ao mercado. | Tomorrow I'll go to the market. |
| A gente sairá logo. | A gente vai sair logo. | We'll leave soon. |
| Quem falará com ela? | Quem vai falar com ela? | Who's going to talk to her? |
| Eu te ligarei depois. | Eu vou te ligar depois. | I'll call you later. |
| Choverá amanhã. | Vai chover amanhã. | It's going to rain tomorrow. |
Amanhã eu vou ao mercado.
Tomorrow I'll go to the market.
A gente vai sair logo.
We're going to leave soon.
Quem vai falar com ela?
Who's going to talk to her?
In the first example, notice that vou ao mercado uses the present of ir alone — no second verb is needed, because ir already means "go." A learner who reflexively says irei ao mercado in conversation will be understood perfectly but will sound noticeably formal, the way an English speaker sounds saying "I shall proceed to the market tomorrow."
Even the media uses the periphrastic out loud
It's tempting to assume that "proper" or broadcast Brazilian clings to the simple future. It doesn't. Radio and TV interviewers, sports commentators, and talk-show hosts default to the periphrastic in their speech, even when the corresponding written caption on screen might use the simple future.
O técnico vai escalar o mesmo time de novo.
The coach is going to field the same team again. (sportscaster)
A gente vai conversar com o ministro depois do intervalo.
We're going to talk to the minister after the break. (TV host)
So the divide isn't "educated speakers use the simple future." It's a medium divide: spoken language (formal or informal) leans periphrastic; written language reaches for the simple future.
Where the simple future is genuinely preserved
The one-word future is not dead — it's specialized. It survives, and is even preferred, in these contexts:
Written news and journalism. Headlines and articles routinely use it.
Banco Central elevará a taxa de juros em junho.
Central Bank will raise the interest rate in June. (news headline)
Official announcements and legal/formal documents. Contracts, decrees, and notices favor the synthetic form for its authority.
A empresa fornecerá os equipamentos no prazo de trinta dias.
The company shall provide the equipment within thirty days. (contract)
Songs and poetry. Lyrics and verse use it freely, including the tu forms.
Um dia eu voltarei pra te buscar.
One day I'll come back to get you. (song lyric)
Certain fixed expressions and the speculative will be that… frame, será que, which stays alive even in casual talk.
Será que ela ainda lembra de mim?
I wonder if she still remembers me?
For the full picture of when the simple future earns its place, see simple future for prediction and hypothesis.
Why this happened (and how English compares)
This drift mirrors something English speakers already know intuitively. English technically has "shall" (I shall go), but it has nearly vanished from American speech, displaced by "will" and especially "going to." Brazilian Portuguese did the same thing one notch further along: it pushed the synthetic future (irei) toward the formality of English "shall," and promoted vou + infinitive to the role of the everyday "going to / will."
So the learner's situation is familiar: just as you wouldn't say "I shall fetch the groceries" to a friend in English, you wouldn't say irei ao mercado to a friend in Brazilian Portuguese. The insight to carry away is that a learner who masters only the periphrastic future will sound completely natural in speech, while a learner who masters only the simple future will sound stilted when talking but perfectly appropriate when writing.
Common Mistakes
❌ Amanhã eu irei ao mercado. (chatting with a friend)
Understood, but stilted — the simple future sounds bookish in casual speech.
✅ Amanhã eu vou ao mercado.
Tomorrow I'll go to the market.
❌ Eu te ligarei mais tarde, tá? (texting)
Too formal for a text; reads like a printed notice.
✅ Eu vou te ligar mais tarde, tá?
I'll call you later, okay?
❌ A gente sairemos logo.
Incorrect — 'a gente' takes the singular, and in speech you'd use the periphrastic anyway.
✅ A gente vai sair logo.
We're going to leave soon.
❌ Quem falará com ela? (asking a coworker informally)
Sounds formal/rhetorical in casual context.
✅ Quem vai falar com ela?
Who's going to talk to her?
❌ Vai chover amanha.
Incorrect — 'amanhã' needs the tilde.
✅ Vai chover amanhã.
It's going to rain tomorrow.
Key Takeaways
- In conversation, the simple future sounds bookish; Brazilians use vou + infinitive instead.
- The split is by medium, not formality of the speaker: spoken = periphrastic, written = simple future.
- Even broadcasters and interviewers default to the periphrastic when speaking.
- The simple future is preserved in written news, official/legal text, songs, poetry, and the frozen será que.
- Compare English "shall" (nearly gone from speech) → Brazilian irei; English "going to" → Brazilian vou.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- The Periphrastic Future (vou + infinitive)A1 — How Brazilians actually talk about the future: ir in the present plus an infinitive.
- Futuro do Presente Simples: FormationA2 — How to build the simple future in Brazilian Portuguese — endings added to the whole infinitive, the only three irregular stems, and why you mostly see it in writing.
- Simple Future for Prediction and HypothesisB1 — The narrow set of situations where Brazilian Portuguese still reaches for the one-word future (farei, virá) over the everyday vou + infinitive.
- The Future System in BR PortugueseA2 — The three ways Brazilian Portuguese expresses the future — periphrastic 'ir + infinitive', present tense with a future adverb, and the simple future — and which one to actually use.
- Present Indicative for Future EventsA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese uses the simple present for scheduled and near-future events — like English 'the train leaves at five' — and how this choice differs from vou + infinitivo and the simple future.