Introduction

Using the future tense with لو can be a little tricky, because many verbs in conditional clauses have a future tense meaning. In the sentence, 'If I see you tomorrow.' the verb 'see' is interpreted as being in the future tense; however, the verb is not in the future tense. In English, we can put an action in the future tense by saying 'will' or 'going to'. Notice how the meaning changes when we place the verb in the future tense. 'If I will see you tommorow'/ 'If I am going to see you tomorrow" are generally not interchangable with 'If I see you tomorrow.'

The future tense marker هـ / حـ is used in Egyptian like 'will' and 'going to' is used in English conditional sentences. It is NOT used when you simply want the action to be interpreted as being in the future tense. Use هـ / حـ when you want to say "If I were going to verb" or "If I am going to verb" but never when you want to say "If I verb (at some future time)."