Talking about the Future

Concept of Future Tense in Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese doesn’t have strict tenses like English or other western languages. It’s much more context-based.
Future actions are typically inferred through context and additional words that give a sense of the future, rather than changing the verb itself.
Time words play an essential role in defining future actions.

Future Time Words

明天 (míngtiān): This word means ‘tomorrow’. It’s one of the most common ways of expressing the future.
以后 (yǐhòu): This word is used to say ‘after’ or ‘in the future’. It describes events that will happen from the present moment onwards.
将来 (jiānglái): This phrase is used to describe some distant time in the future and can mean ‘in the future’ or ‘future’.
Including calendar dates also allows us to describe future events, like ‘8月1号’(the 1st of August).

Indicating Future Actions with Modal Verbs

会 (huì): This modal verb often denotes a future event or a willingness to do something in the future.
要 (yào): Like 会, 要 also indicates a future event with a strong intention or necessity.
打算 (dǎsuàn): It’s used to convey one’s plans to do something in the future. More like ‘planning to’.

Examples in Use

To say ‘I will study tomorrow’, you would say: ‘我明天会学习’ (wǒ míngtiān huì xuéxí).
To express ‘He will go there in the future’, say: ‘他以后要去那儿’ (tā yǐhòu yào qù nàr).
To tell ‘I plan to travel next year’, say: ‘我打算明年旅游’ (wǒ dǎsuàn míngnián lǚyóu).

Continual practice will help you grasp Mandarin’s nuanced future tense usage and improve your sentence-building skills. Always remember in Mandarin, context is the king.