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Dans un siècle, le pourcentage d'habitants diminuera.

Dans un siècle, le pourcentage d'habitants diminuera.
In a century, the percentage of inhabitants will decrease.
From Lesson 138:The near vs. distant future·French

Questions & Answers about Dans un siècle, le pourcentage d'habitants diminuera.

Why is diminuera used here instead of va diminuer?
Diminuera is the futur simple (will decrease). It is used here because the sentence is making a prediction about the distant future (dans un siècle - in a century). The futur proche (va diminuer - is going to decrease) is usually kept for things happening very soon or that are already certain.
Why does the sentence use Dans for "In" instead of En?
When talking about the future, dans is used to mean "time from now" (In a century from now). If you used en, it would mean the amount of time it takes to complete an action (like saying "It will take a century to decrease"), which doesn't fit the meaning here.
Why is it d'habitants and not des habitants?
After words expressing a quantity or a proportion, like le pourcentage (the percentage) or beaucoup (a lot), French uses de (or d' before a vowel) without the definite article. So it is le pourcentage d'habitants, rather than des (which would be de + les).
How is the future tense formed for the verb diminuer here?
For regular -er verbs like diminuer, you take the full dictionary form (diminuer) and add the future endings. Since le pourcentage is a singular "it" (il), the ending is -a, making it diminuera.

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