When planning a trip, you often need to talk about actions that will already be completed before a certain point in the future—for example, "We will have arrived before boarding begins." In Italian, this is called the Futuro Anteriore (Future Perfect) tense.
Forming the Future Perfect with "Essere"
The future perfect is a compound tense formed with the future tense of an auxiliary verb (avere or essere) and a past participle. Verbs that take essere in the past tense (like those of motion, arrival, and departure) also take essere in the future perfect.
| Subject | Future of essere | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| io | sarò | andato / andata |
| tu | sarai | andato / andata |
| lui / lei | sarà | andato / andata |
| noi | saremo | andati / andate |
| voi | sarete | andati / andate |
| loro | saranno | andati / andate |
Because the auxiliary is essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Notice the ending changes (-o, -a, -i, -e) in the examples below:
| Marco will have already left before the takeoff. | Marco sarà già partito prima del decollo. |
| Upon our arrival, the girl will have already gone to customs. | Al nostro arrivo, la ragazza sarà già andata alla dogana. |
| Before boarding, the passengers will have already arrived at the airport. | Prima dell'imbarco, i passeggeri saranno già arrivati in aeroporto. |
| When boarding begins, my sisters will have returned from the trip. | Quando inizierà l'imbarco, le mie sorelle saranno tornate dal viaggio. |
Setting the Timeline
The future perfect is usually paired with a time marker or another future event to show when the action will be finished. Common trigger words include quando (when), prima di (before), and entro (by).
| by (time) | entro |
| By tonight, will your daughters have arrived at the destination? | Entro stasera, le tue figlie saranno arrivate alla meta? |
| Before the train's arrival, will you have gone to the platform? | Prima dell'arrivo del treno, sarete andati al binario? |
