What can we use when talking about the future?

Fahad A.C1Kwiziq community member

What can we use when talking about the future?

For example, « We will arrive on tuesday, and we’ll leave the following day »

I know we can use « le jour prochain » and « le jour dernier », but is  « le jour suivant/précédent » or « le lendemain/ la veille » also allowed?

Asked 5 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Fahad,

In your example in the future, you would say -

'Nous arriverons mardi et repartirons le jour suivant /le lendemain.'

When to use 'suivant' or 'prochain' is always difficult to explain and problematic for students as you will often use just 'next' in English... 

You will seldom use the word ‘prochain’ after the word 'jour' ... although you might say ‘ces prochains jours/ ces jours prochains’. ( in the next few days )...You are more likely to say, mercredi prochain  or la semaine prochaine le mois prochain but always in reference to 'now' , meaning the one nearest in time to now. 

e.g.

'Je suis pris dimanche prochain mais remettons ça au dimanche suivant '= I am not free next Sunday but let's do it the following Sunday

If you are talking about a time in the past, you will also use 'suivant' -

'He came back the next day' Il est revenu le jour suivant/ le lendemain/ le jour d'après

In the example we want to convey the 'next' /following day in the time you are talking about. 

When you want to convey 'next' in order you will also use  'suivant'

For instance , in a queue,

'Next!' will be 'au suivant '

But not easy I know....

Hope this helps! 

 

What can we use when talking about the future?

For example, « We will arrive on tuesday, and we’ll leave the following day »

I know we can use « le jour prochain » and « le jour dernier », but is  « le jour suivant/précédent » or « le lendemain/ la veille » also allowed?

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