Brazilian Portuguese has three different ways to talk about the future, and the most important thing to learn first is which one Brazilians actually use when they open their mouths. The honest answer: in everyday speech, the periphrastic ir + infinitive (vou comer) carries the overwhelming majority of future references — roughly nine times out of ten. The textbook "simple future" (comerei) is real, correct, and important to recognize, but in conversation it sounds noticeably formal or bookish. This page maps all three systems, ranks them by how natural each sounds, and tells you when to deploy which.
The three futures at a glance
| Construction | Example | Register / use |
|---|---|---|
| vou comer | Default in spoken BR (~90% of future references) |
| amanhã eu como | Scheduled / fixed events |
| comerei | Writing, news, formal speech, hypotheticals |
All three can translate the same English sentence "I'll eat." The difference is not meaning so much as register and nuance — and getting the register right is what makes you sound like a Brazilian rather than a textbook.
1. Periphrastic 'ir + infinitive' — the everyday default
This is the future you should reach for by default in conversation. It is built exactly like English "going to": the present tense of ir ("to go") plus the bare infinitive of the main verb. It needs no special conjugation beyond knowing how to conjugate ir, which makes it the easiest future to produce.
Eu vou comer alguma coisa antes de sair.
I'm going to eat something before going out.
A gente vai viajar no feriado.
We're going to travel over the holiday.
Você vai me ajudar ou não?
Are you going to help me or not?
Eles vão chegar atrasados, com certeza.
They're going to arrive late, for sure.
Unlike English, Brazilian Portuguese does not distinguish "I will eat" from "I'm going to eat" — vou comer covers both. There is no separate "going to" vs "will" contrast to worry about; the periphrastic simply is the normal future.
2. Present tense + future adverb — for things on the schedule
Just like English ("The train leaves at six," "I work tomorrow"), Brazilian Portuguese freely uses the present tense to talk about scheduled or planned future events, especially when a time adverb makes the future reference clear. This is extremely common and sounds completely natural for anything fixed on a calendar or timetable.
Amanhã eu trabalho até tarde.
Tomorrow I work late.
O voo sai às seis da manhã.
The flight leaves at six in the morning.
Semana que vem a gente se vê.
We'll see each other next week.
Que horas começa o jogo hoje?
What time does the game start today?
Notice that this works best with a future adverb present (amanhã, semana que vem, hoje) or a clearly scheduled event (o voo sai). Without that signal, the present is just present. For more on this, see the dedicated page on the present tense for future reference.
3. Simple future (comerei) — writing, news, and formality
The futuro do presente simples (comerei, falará, farão) is a single conjugated word that means "will [verb]." It is grammatically the most "proper" future, and it dominates in:
- Writing — books, articles, formal correspondence.
- The news — broadcasters and headlines lean on it heavily.
- Formal or solemn speech — speeches, vows, predictions, prophecy, legalese.
- Hypothetical or uncertain framing — it can lend a tone of conjecture.
O presidente anunciará as novas medidas amanhã.
The president will announce the new measures tomorrow. (news register)
Estas mudanças afetarão milhões de brasileiros.
These changes will affect millions of Brazilians. (formal/written)
Um dia eu te contarei toda a verdade.
One day I'll tell you the whole truth. (solemn, literary tone)
In casual speech these would almost always be reworded with ir: o presidente vai anunciar..., essas mudanças vão afetar..., um dia eu vou te contar.... Saying comerei at the lunch table is not wrong, but it lands as stiff or theatrical — the way "I shall eat" lands in English.
Why English makes this look harder than it is
English speakers expect a future to be one word with an auxiliary ("will eat") and assume the Portuguese one-word future (comerei) is the everyday equivalent. It is not — it is the formal one. The everyday Brazilian future is the periphrasis, which happens to map perfectly onto English "going to." So the practical mapping for a learner is:
- English "going to" / casual "will" → Portuguese vou + infinitive (default).
- English scheduled present ("I work tomorrow") → Portuguese present + adverb.
- English formal/written "will" / "shall" → Portuguese simple future (comerei).
A note on Brazilian vs European Portuguese
Both varieties use the periphrastic future and both have the simple future. The difference is one of proportion. European Portuguese keeps the simple future more alive in everyday speech, and it has its own colloquial habits. Brazilian Portuguese has gone further: in colloquial speech it has almost entirely replaced farei with vou fazer, direi with vou dizer, and so on. A Brazilian who says comerei in casual conversation is consciously raising the register. This is why, for spoken Brazilian Portuguese, mastering ir + infinitive matters far more than drilling simple-future conjugations.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu querei comer agora.
Incorrect — there is no separate 'will' word to add; the future is built with 'ir' or the conjugated future stem.
✅ Eu vou comer agora.
I'm going to eat now.
❌ Vou comerei mais tarde.
Incorrect — don't stack 'ir' with the simple future; choose one.
✅ Vou comer mais tarde.
I'm going to eat later.
❌ Comerei com você no almoço, beleza?
Unnatural — the simple future sounds stiff in casual speech.
✅ Vou almoçar com você, beleza?
I'll have lunch with you, cool?
❌ Eu vou a comer.
Incorrect — Portuguese 'ir' takes a bare infinitive, with no 'a' (unlike Spanish 'ir a comer').
✅ Eu vou comer.
I'm going to eat.
❌ Amanhã eu vou trabalho.
Incorrect — after 'vou' use an infinitive ('trabalhar'), not a present-tense verb.
✅ Amanhã eu vou trabalhar.
Tomorrow I'm going to work.
Key Takeaways
- Three futures: ir + infinitive (default spoken), present + adverb (scheduled), simple future (formal/written).
- In speech, reach for vou + infinitive ~90% of the time — it is rarely the wrong choice.
- The one-word simple future (comerei) belongs to writing, news, and formal/solemn speech; it sounds stiff at the lunch table.
- Unlike Spanish, Portuguese ir takes a bare infinitive — never ir a comer.
- Brazilian Portuguese has pushed the periphrastic future further than European Portuguese, nearly retiring farei/direi from everyday speech.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- 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.
- The Periphrastic Future (vou + infinitive)A1 — How Brazilians actually talk about the future: ir in the present plus an infinitive.
- Colloquial Avoidance of Simple FutureA2 — Why the one-word future (farei, irei) sounds bookish in speech, and what Brazilians actually say instead.
- 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.
- 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.