The é-future verbs are a special class of a-future verbs in which the reduplicating vowel has been lengthened to é as a consequence of absorbing the following consonant. This pattern was reinterpreted as a replacement of the stem vowel with é and later became highly productive.
This future class is found predominantly in verbs belonging to one of the strong conjugation classes (B I to B V) whose root begins with a consonant and ends in r or l, as well as in gaibid and its derivatives. It is found in a few other verbs as well in Old Irish.
This é arose by regular phonological rule in cases where the verb root began with a velar stop (c or g) and ended in r, l or b:
In other cases, the é arose through dissimilatory loss of the second consonant followed by compensatory lengthening or simply by analogy.
See Category:Old Irish é future verbs for a list of verbs that take the é-future.
In Middle Irish, this pattern was extended to the highly productive verbal suffix -(a)igid (from Old Irish -(a)igidir), giving the future ending -éochaid. This in turn yielded the Early Modern Irish ending -óchaidh/-eochaidh (still found in Ulster), yielding in turn the modern standard Irish future ending -óidh/-eoidh of the second conjugation.
The forms shown below for gaibid (“to take”) are constructed on the basis of attested endings.
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | géba | gébae | gébaid | gébaimmi | gébaithe | gébait | gébaithir | gébaitir |
| Conjunct | ·géb | ·gébae | ·géba | ·gébam | ·gébaid | ·gébat | ·gébathar | ·gébatar |
| Relative | gébas | gébaimme | gébaite | gébathar | gébaiter |
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ·gébainn | ·gébatha | ·gébad | ·gébaimmis | ·gébaithe | ·gébaitis | ·gébaithe | ·gébaitis |
There are no deponent verbs that take the é-future.