A2 · The future
The future: जाऊँगा, जाएगी, and होगा for “probably”
the future tense
Stem + ऊँ, ए, ओ or एँ, then गा, गी or गे: मैं करूँगा, वह करेगी, हम करेंगे.
At a glance
- Remember
- Stem, person vowel, then ga, gi or ge — and no ne anywhere in the future.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The future — What is still to come — promised, planned or merely guessed at.
- Form
- मैं करूँगा / मैं करूँगीI (man / woman)
- Signal words
- कल
- अगले हफ़्ते
- अगले साल
- बाद में
- शायद
- -गा
- -गी
- -गे
- Trap
- Wrong:मैंने कल आपको फ़ोन करूँगा।Right:मैं कल आपको फ़ोन करूँगा।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
| I (man / woman) | मैं करूँगा / मैं करूँगी |
| you, friendly | तुम करोगे / तुम करोगी |
| he / she | वह करेगा / वह करेगी |
| we, you (polite), they | हम करेंगे / आप करेंगी |
| vowel stem | मैं खाऊँगा, वह खाएगी, वे खाएँगे |
| देना, लेना | मैं दूँगा, वह लेगी, आप लेंगे |
| होना | होऊँगा, होगा, होगे, होंगे |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The future is stem + person vowel + -गा, -गी or -गे.
हम शाम को फ़िल्म देखेंगे।We will watch a film in the evening.
The ending shows gender: -गा, -गी, -गे.
वह अगले साल डॉक्टर बनेगी।She will become a doctor next year.
देना and लेना shorten: दूँगा, लूँगा.
मैं तुम्हें कल पैसे दूँगा।I will give you the money tomorrow.
The future never takes ने.
मैं कल आपको फ़ोन करूँगा।I will phone you tomorrow.
होगा turns a statement into a guess.
राहुल अभी दफ़्तर में होगा।Rahul is probably at the office now.
Example sentences
मैं कल आपको फ़ोन करूँगा।I will phone you tomorrow.
वह अगले साल डॉक्टर बनेगी।She will become a doctor next year.
हम शाम को फ़िल्म देखेंगे।We will watch a film in the evening.
आप चाय लेंगे या कॉफ़ी?Will you have tea or coffee?
बच्चे कल स्कूल नहीं जाएँगे।The children will not go to school tomorrow.
राहुल अभी दफ़्तर में होगा।Rahul is probably at the office now.
6 more example sentences
तुम कब आओगे?When will you come?
मैं यह किताब कल लौटाऊँगी।I will return this book tomorrow.
बारिश के बाद मौसम ठंडा होगा।The weather will get cool after the rain.
हम अगले महीने नए घर में रहेंगे।Next month we will be living in a new house.
वे अब तक पहुँच गए होंगे।They will have arrived by now.
मैं आपकी मदद ज़रूर करूँगा।I will certainly help you.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Phoning has an object, so ने looks tempting. But ने belongs to the perfective past only. In the future the subject stays मैं and the verb agrees with it: a woman says मैं कल आपको फ़ोन करूँगी.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Start from the stem, add the vowel for the person, and finish with -गा (man, masculine noun), -गी (woman, feminine noun) or -गे (masculine plural, तुम, आप). The person vowels are -ऊँ- for मैं, -ए- for वह, -ओ- for तुम, and -एँ- for हम, आप and वे: मैं बोलूँगा, वह बोलेगा, तुम बोलोगे, हम बोलेंगे.
After a consonant the vowels are written as vowel signs (बोलूँगा, बोलेगी); after a vowel they are written as full letters (खाऊँगा, खाएगी, खाएँगे, खाओगे). That is a matter of spelling, not of grammar: the endings are the same.
Three verbs shorten their stem. देना gives दूँगा, देगा, देंगे, दोगे; लेना gives लूँगा, लेगा, लेंगे, लोगे; होना gives होऊँगा, होगा, होंगे, होगे. Everything else is regular.
The future of होना has a second job: it turns a statement into a guess. वह घर पर है is “he is at home”; वह घर पर होगा is “he must be at home, I expect”. It works with other tenses too: वह सो रहा होगा, “he is probably asleep”. And the plain future is the polite way to offer or ask: आप चाय लेंगे?, “will you have some tea?”.
A closer look
The future as a guess
English says “he must be tired” or “she will be at work by now”. Hindi uses the future of होना for exactly this: वह थका होगा, वह अब तक दफ़्तर पहुँच गई होगी. The time is the present or the past; only the certainty is lower.
A question with होगा asks for a guess rather than a fact: अभी कितने बजे होंगे?, “what time would it be now?”, said by someone without a watch.
Future or present for plans?
For a firm arrangement Hindi, like English, often prefers the progressive present: हम कल जयपुर जा रहे हैं. The future हम कल जयपुर जाएँगे is just as correct and sounds more like a decision or a promise.
Worth knowing (1)
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The nasal in the endings
The first person always has a nasal vowel: -ऊँगा, never -ऊगा. So do the plural forms: जाएँगे, करेंगे. Leaving it out changes the person — करेगे is not a form at all, करोगे is “you will do”.
हम कल सुबह जल्दी निकलेंगे।We will set off early tomorrow morning.
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