「う」 for future tense

Question

So, I looked up in a dictionary that the suffix「う」can indicate will. So, could this possibly indicate future tense? If so, is there a special case?

Answer 1

I think you may be talking about words like しよう and 食べよう, which are in the volitional tense.

This tense generally expresses the intention or will of someone, as in.

僕は日本に行こうと思ってる.
I'm thinking of going to Japan.

It really doesn't have a direct parallel to English, and is a bit different from what you would think of as "future tense". The concept of "~will" when not referring to someone's intention would often be translated using the normal dictionary form, i.e.:

君は絶対負けるよ。
You will definitely lose.

Japanese does not have a "future tense" per se, and when you see the dictionary (i.e. "non past") tense, you must interpret it as either referring to the present or the future.

The volitional form has many subtleties, here is an article I wrote about a bunch of it's uses.