The Pronominal Verbs - The Future Simple

Pronominal verbs or “verbes pronominaux” also called reflexive verbs hold an important part in the French language. They are always used with reflexive pronouns that replace the subject only. These are me, m’, te, t’, se, s’, nous, vous. Throughout this chapter we will explore the use, the form and the types of the pronominal verbs. We will also learn how to conjugate the pronominal verbs into the present simple, the passé composé, the imperfect tense, the future simple, the subjunctive, the imperative, the present and past conditional.

A verb in the pronominal form conjugates to the future tense the same way a regular verb does. We only have to add the reflexive pronouns to the verb.

Let’s conjugate the verb se révolter into the future simple and the verb révolter and see the difference between the two in terms of the form.

se révolter	révolter
Je me révolterai	Je révolterai
Tu te révolteras	Tu révolteras
Il se révoltera	Il révoltera
Elle se révoltera	Elle révoltera
On se révoltera	On révoltera
Nous nous révolterons	Nous révolterons
Vous vous révolterez	Vous révolterez
Ils se révolteront	Ils révolteront
Elles se révolteront	Elles révolteront

As you can see, the only difference there is between the two conjugations is the reflexive pronouns: me, te , se, nous, vous.

Let’s conjugate another verb that can only be pronominal. In other words, it is always preceded with a reflexive pronoun: s’envoler.

Je	m’envolerai
Tu	t’envoleras
Il	s’envolera
Elle	s’envolera
On	s’envolera
Nous	nous envolerons
Vous	vous envolerez
Ils	s’envoleront
Elles	s’envoleront

Now let’s see the difference in terms of the meaning between the vebs révolter and se révolter using the following example:

Si vous nous poussez à bout, nous nous révolterons.
If you push us over the edge, we will rebel.

Ton attitude révoltera tes grands-parents.
Your attitude will outrage your grand-parents.

“nous nous révolterons” in the first example means we will rebel, we will rise up, whereas in the second example “révoltera” which is a transitive verb that requires a direct object (in this case it is “tes grands-parents”) means will outrage or will dismay.

Let’s take another example:

Nous verrons ce qu’on pourra faire pour vous.
We’ll see what we we can do for you.

Nous nous verrons demain à la même heure et au même endroit.
We’ll meet tomorrow at the same time and at the same place.

The interrogative form

As you know there are three ways of asking questions in French:

The est-ce que form: Standard form The subject/verb or auxiliary inversion: Formal form The intonation: Colloquial form

The “est-ce que form: To ask questions using the “est-ce que form” with pronominal verbs in the future simple, we simply add “est-ce que” to the question.

For example:

Est-ce qu’ils se comprendront quand ils se parleront ?
Will they understand each other when they talk?

The inversion form: Let’s take the following example: s’envoler.

M’envolerai-je ? T’envoleras-tu ? S’envolera-t-il ? S’envolera-t-elle ? S’envolera-t-on ? Nous envolerons- nous ? Vous envolerez-vous ? S’envoleront-ils ? S’envoleront-elles ?

Remember: Don’t forget the linking letter “t” with the personal pronouns: il, elle, on.

As for the intonation, we just keep the same sentence and add the interrogation mark at the end when we write or we add the intonation of a question when we talk.

For example:

Tu t’assiéras avec qui demain?
Who will you sit with tomorrow?

The Negative form

Let’s conjugate the verb ne pas se rappeler in the future simple:

Je	ne me rappellerai pas
Tu	ne te rappelleras pas
Il	ne se rappellera pas
Elle	ne se rappellera pas
On	ne se rappellera pas
Nous	ne nous rappellerons pas
Vous	ne vous rappellerez pas
Ils	ne se rappelleront pas
Elles	ne se rappelleront pas

As you can see, the negative form is obtained by putting the pronominal verb between “ne” and “pas”.