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However, some languages combine such an auxiliary with the main verb to produce a simple (one-word, morphological) future tense. This is the origin of the future tense in Western Romance languages such as French and Italian (see below). A given language may have more than one way to express futurity.
(Another, generally archaic, use of shall is in certain dependent clauses with future reference, as in "The prize is to be given to whoever shall have done the best." More normal here in modern English is the simple present tense: "whoever does the best"; see Uses of English verb forms § Dependent clauses.)
In the examples above, the simple present is used instead of the simple future, even though the reference is to future time. Examples of similar uses with other tense–aspect combinations are given below: We will wash up while you are tidying. (present progressive instead of future progressive) Please log off when you have finished working.
In a future conditional, the protasis usually has one of the future tenses, where English has the simple present. In the following, the simple future tense is used: sī enim erit bellum, cum Pompeiō esse cōnstituī (Cicero) [51] 'if there is (lit. will be) a war, I have decided to be with Pompey' experiar et dīcam, sī poterō, plānius ...
The present tense used in the condition clause may take the form of the simple present as in the above examples, or the present progressive, present perfect or present perfect progressive as appropriate (according to general principles for uses of English verb forms): If he is sleeping when we arrive, we shan't wake him. (present progressive)
In predictive conditional sentences, the future tense or imperative generally appears in the main clause, but the condition clause is formed with the present tense (as in English). This contrasts with subordinate clauses introduced by certain other conjunctions, such as quand ("when"), where French uses the future (while English has the present).
There are four simple tenses: the present, past, future, and conditional. The present tense can be formed from the infinitive by removing the final -r. It covers the simple and continuous present tenses in English. The verbs esser 'to be', haber 'to have', and vader 'to go' normally take the short forms es, ha, and va rather than esse, habe ...
The English modal auxiliary verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality, properties such as possibility and obligation. [a] They can most easily be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participles or plain forms [b]) and by their lack of the ending ‑(e)s for the third-person singular.