There are several forms of the future tense preverb.
-
ga-: ga- occurs in independent order verbs after a personal prefix:
- with ni- 'first person' (usually as nin-, in-,or n-): ninga-, inga-, nga-
- with gi- 'second person' (either in the form gi- or optionally omitted): giga- or ga-
- with o- 'third person': oga-.
-
gad-: The variant gad- is used by some speakers in independent order verbs after a personal prefix directly in front of a vowel-initial preverb or verb stem: for example, with aabajitoon 'use it' you might hear either ninga-aabajitoon, giga-aabajitoon / ga-aabajitoon, oga-aabajitoon or ningadaabajitoon, gigadaabajitoon, ogadaabajitoon, etc. The hyphen can be omitted in writing.
-
da-: da- occurs in independent order verbs when there is no personal prefix. For some speakers (especially in Eastern Minnesota and in Wisconsin), da- is also used in unchanged conjunct verbs.
-
ge-: ge- occurs in changed conjunct verbs.
-
ged-:The variant ged- is used by some speakers directly in front of a vowel-initial preverb or verb stem. The hyphen can be omitted in writing. Other speakers use ge- in front of vowels.
-
ji-: ji- occurs in unchanged conjunct verbs. For some speakers (especially in Eastern Minnesota and in Wisconsin), da- is used in unchanged conjunct verbs rather than ji-.