future tense (fut, FUT)

In GRAMMAR, a TENSE form which refers to future time, as in French J’irai ‘I’ll go’. English has no INFLECTIONAL future tense, but has many ways of referring to future time, such as through the use of the MODAL verbs will/shall, future-time ADVERBIALS (tomorrow, next week), and such verbs as be about to. The will/shall forms are usually called ‘future tenses’ in TRADITIONAL grammar, but many linguists consider this to be misleading, as these forms express several other meanings than future time (such as timelessness in Stones will sink in water). Analogously, the use of will/shall have was called the future perfect tense (or the ‘future in the past’) in traditional grammar.