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Irregular Future Forms: aurai, ferai, irai, serai

HigherHigher tier onlyAQA

Revise Irregular Future Forms: aurai, ferai, irai, serai for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Higher tier exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). Avoir, faire, aller and être have irregular future stems that must be learnt.

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These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

This is a Higher tier only topic, so there's no Foundation paper — only the Higher worksheet and mark scheme below.

Higher

WorksheetHigher · PDFMark SchemeHigher · PDF

Topic overview

Several common verbs have irregular future stems, and these must be memorised because no rule produces them. This is a Higher-only topic.

The four most important are avoir giving aur-, être giving ser-, aller giving ir-, and faire giving fer-. So j'aurai, je serai, j'irai, je ferai.

Others appear regularly: venir gives viendr-, pouvoir gives pourr-, vouloir gives voudr-, devoir gives devr-, savoir gives saur-, and voir gives verr-. Every irregular stem still ends in r, and every one takes the same endings as regular verbs. So only the stem needs learning — the endings never vary.

Revision notes

The four essential stems

Avoir gives aur-: j'aurai. Être gives ser-: je serai.

Aller gives ir-: j'irai. Faire gives fer-: je ferai. These four appear more than any others and should be learned first.

Other irregular stems

Venir gives viendr-. Pouvoir gives pourr-. Vouloir gives voudr-.

Devoir gives devr-. Savoir gives saur-. Voir gives verr-. Each must be memorised, but the pattern is consistent in one respect: every stem ends in r.

The endings never change

Every future stem, regular or irregular, takes -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont.

So j'aurai, tu auras, il aura, nous aurons, vous aurez, ils auront. Once the stem is known, the rest follows automatically.

Key points

  • Some verbs have irregular future stems.
  • Avoir gives aur- and être gives ser-.
  • Aller gives ir- and faire gives fer-.
  • Every future stem ends in r.
  • The endings are the same as regular verbs.
  • Only the stem needs memorising.

Worked examples

Example 1

Give the je form of the future of être. [2 marks]

Working

je seraiuse the irregular stem ser-
The ending -ai is the same as for regular verbsexplain the ending

Example 2

Give the future stems of aller and faire. [2 marks]

Working

aller gives ir-give the first stem
faire gives fer-give the second stem

Example 3

Give the nous form of the future of avoir. [2 marks]

Working

nous auronsuse the stem aur- with the nous ending
The ending -ons is identical to that of regular verbsexplain the ending

Common mistakes

  • Using the infinitive as the stem for irregulars.

    Je serai, not je êtrai.

  • Changing the endings for irregular verbs.

    Only the stem is irregular.

  • Forgetting the stem ends in r.

    Every future stem does.

  • Confusing ir- with the verb ir.

    Ir- is the future stem of aller.

Exam tips

  • Learn aur-, ser-, ir- and fer- first.
  • Check every stem ends in r.
  • Apply the same endings to all verbs.
  • Remember this is a Higher-only topic.

Key terms

Irregular stem
A future stem not built from the infinitive.
Aur-
The future stem of avoir.
Ser-
The future stem of être.
Ir-
The future stem of aller.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.