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15
Talking
about the
future
102
that hold no such ambiguity, is the verb zullen the correct choice for the
future tense. Examples:
De koningin zal de nieuwe brug The queen will open the new
openen. bridge.
De wind zal uit het oosten waaien. The wind will blow from the
east.
When talking about important events which one expects to be completed
at a specific point in the future, we use the ‘futurum exactum’, the verb
zullen in combination with the main verb in the present perfect.
Volgende week om deze tijd zal het kind geboren zijn.
Next week at this time the child will have been born.
Over een jaar zal het huis van onder tot boven verbouwd zijn.
In a year, the house will have been renovated top to bottom.
Over niet al te lange tijd zal er een nieuwe president gekozen zijn.
In the not too distant future, a new president will have been elected.
Over tien dagen zal de alpinist de top van Everest bereikt hebben.
In ten days, the mountaineer will have reached the top of Everest.
Using the verb gaan
The most commonly used form of the future is the verb gaan in combination
with the infinitive of the main verb. Examples:
Ik ga een huis kopen. I’m going to buy a house.
Ga je die marathon echt rennen? Are you really going to run that
marathon?
Wat ga je morgenavond doen? What are you going to do
tomorrow evening?
This is the least ambiguous and most versatile form to use for the future,
as the verb gaan itself holds the meaning going to and therefore a time
expression isn’t really necessary to clarify that the sentence concerns an
event in the future.