FUTURAL POTENTIAL OF THE PRESENT TENSE IN MODERN FRENCH
Authors:   Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Kirkovska Inga S. 
Published: December 2024

The present tense is the reference point in the French tense system that connects the future and
the past. As it is closely related to both, it can express actions that relate to both the past and the future.
Consequently, the primary meanings of the future can be conveyed by other grammatical forms in speech
in Indicatif, depending on the context.
The object of the study is the form of Présent de l’Indicatif (present actual/nonactual). The subject of
the article is the semantic potential and the specifics of the present tense to convey the meaning of the fu-
ture tense. The aim of the study is to determine the particularities of the grammatical temporal structure of
the present tense in modern French, which is capable of conveying two meaning’s tense – present and past.
The study focuses on the semantic and structural aspects related to the realising of the grammatical mean-
ing of the future tense in the French language and speech system.
Two methods were employed in the course of the study: the method of linguistic experiment and the
method of reconstruction of a fragment of the language system. The application of these methods enabled
us to confirm the primary hypothesis that the Présent de l’Indicatif form in the French language system has
a futural potential and its structure is heterogeneous in nature. In contemporary French, actions conveyed
by the grammatical present tense originate from the perceptual present and can extend to encompass
larger and smaller segments in the direction of the future than the Futur simple form, contingent on the presence or absence of lexical markers. The grammatical meaning of “futur – present” is equivalent to the
meaning of the future tense Futur simple in the French language system. The correlation between the
moment of speech and the context determines the equal use of the Futur simple and the Présent in speech.
In speech, a distinction is made between the concept of time and the manner in which it is expressed.
The concept of time is a fundamental aspect of the conceptual sphere and, as a result, is related to language.
In contrast, the manner in which time is expressed is a fundamental aspect of speech and discursive reality.
The temporal meaning of utterances containing the form Présent de l’Indicatif, which belong
semantically to the future plan, is actualised by a special type of connection present in the transition from
“internal time” to “external time”. This transition is conveyed by the relation of posteriority to the moment
of utterance, which is carried out by the speaker, while the modal meaning is actualised by the coincidence
with the present moment in a softened form.
The use of the method of linguistic experimentation, which involves the substitution and
transformation of linguistic elements of the French language, in particular adverbial modifiers, made it
possible to trace the grammatical temporal structure of the futural present and to determine the range of
futural meanings of each of its variants.
The futural present is discrete in nature, consisting of 4 temporal invariants located in the past, present
and future. These variants have different degrees of future potential: 1) the present universal, which conveys
timeless actions and whose future potential is unlimited in time and space; 2) relative present, whose future
potential is limited by certain time modifiers; 3) the present tense, which conveys the near future; 4) the point
present is the last in terms of the degree of future potential.
The first two types have unlimited future potential that can stretch to infinity. The third type has the sec-
ond largest future potential, its scope can be revealed if there are adverbial ti me modifi ers that mark, strength- time modifi ers that mark, strength- modifiers that mark, strength-
en and specify the future present. These modifiers are able to increase the future potential of the sentence and
objectify the systemic meaning of the Présent form.
The Présent de l’Indicatif form has the capacity to convey a particular timeless mode of communication
that locates the action simultaneously in multiple temporal planes (present, past and future). Its scope
is semantically greater than the meaning of the perceptual simultaneity of the moment of speech. The
futural present is located at the intersection of two temporal plans (present and future) in the French
language system and simultaneously in three temporal plans in speech (past, present and future). And it is
only the speaker who divides the continuous timeless Présent in the flow of their speech, thus actualising
its true meaning.
The modal connotation of Présent + probablement, equivalent to the connotation of Futur simple, conveys
a complete modal shift of the tense form – the tense meaning of Présent (connection with the present) is
completely erased and the modal connotation of the assumption of the future action becomes significant. The
modal connotation of Présent + probablement is defined in the same context as the Futur simple.
The futural present is used to demonstrate the probability or desirability of an action occurring due
to the mental, syntactic, and semantic connection with the moment of speech.
When the grammatical form is transferred to another tense in speech, potential semes are activated
so that additional modal or referential shades of meaning can be realised. Thus, the Présent remains the
most productive form for conveying the modal shades of meanings of the futurum in the French language
system.