Talking about future plans
In this lesson you will learn to talk about your future plans in Chinese — what you are going to do tomorrow, next week, or next year. Chinese verbs do not change form for the future. Instead, we use helper words like 要 (yào, will/want to), 想 (xiǎng, would like to) and 打算 (dǎsuan, plan to), together with future time words such as 明天 (tomorrow).
我明天要去市场
wǒ míngtiān yào qù shìchǎng
ነገ ወደ ገበያ እሄዳለሁ
下个星期我想喝咖啡
xià ge xīngqī wǒ xiǎng hē kāfēi
በሚቀጥለው ሳምንት ቡና መጠጣት እፈልጋለሁ
我打算学中文
wǒ dǎsuan xué zhōngwén
ቻይንኛ ለመማር አስቤያለሁ
明年我要去亚的斯亚贝巴
míngnián wǒ yào qù Yàdìsī Yàbèibā
በሚቀጥለው ዓመት ወደ አዲስ አበባ እሄዳለሁ
明天是星期天。阿贝贝有很多计划。早上他要去市场买英吉拉和咖啡。然后他想去萨拉的家。他们打算一起喝咖啡，也聊聊未来。下午阿贝贝要学中文，因为明年他想去中国工作。晚上他打算给妈妈打电话。他不想看电视，他要早点睡觉。
To ask "Will you...?", add 吗 (ma) at the end: 你明天要去市场吗? = "Will you go to the market tomorrow?" Answer yes with 要去 (yào qù, "will go") or no with 不去 (bù qù, "will not go").
Check your understanding
1/9 · 100 XPListen and choose the sentence you hear.
No audio on this device — the word is shown below
我明天要去市场