Future tense (khâham)

To talk about what will happen, Farsi uses a helper verb combined with a shortened form of your main action.

Forming the Future Tense

The future tense uses the conjugated present tense of خواستن (to want) acting as the auxiliary verb "will", followed by the short infinitive of your main verb.

To find the short infinitive, simply drop the final ن from the full infinitive. For example, رفتن (to go) becomes رفت, and دیدن (to see) becomes دید.

Here are the auxiliary forms of خواستن used to build the future tense:

PersonAuxiliary VerbMeaning
1st SingularخواهمI will
2nd SingularخواهیYou (sg.) will
3rd SingularخواهدHe/She/It will
1st PluralخواهیمWe will
2nd PluralخواهیدYou (pl.) will
3rd PluralخواهندThey will

Here is the formula in action with simple verbs:

Compound Verbs in the Future Tense

For compound verbs, the auxiliary splits the compound. Place the conjugated form of خواستن after the non-verbal part (the noun or adjective) and before the short infinitive of the verbal part.

For example, to conjugate کاوش کردن (to explore) for "they", combine کاوش + خواهند + کرد:

Here are a few more examples of the future tense:

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