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Is this sentence correct?

Once you'll figure out how this works, you'll love it

What I am trying to convey is:

The person that I am addressing does not understand a certain concept. I want to tell that person that once he/she understands that concept, he/she will love it.

I am not sure about the tenses. I am using Future Simple in both parts of the sentence. Is this OK? Should I use Present Simple in the first part:

Once you figure out how this works, you'll love it

Which one is correct? (Or at least better)

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In English, we almost never use a future (or futurish, like the future perfect) tense in any conditional. –  Colin Fine Jan 11 '11 at 17:40
@Colin From the two answers below, which one would you choose? –  Šime Vidas Jan 11 '11 at 17:47
The second, as others have said. I didn't answer the question because others had already done so: I was just giving a bit of explanation. –  Colin Fine Jan 12 '11 at 12:52

2 Answers 2

up vote 7 down vote accepted

The second one is correct:

Once you figure out how this works, you'll love it

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More correct (or at least more formal) would be.

Once you have figured out how this works, you'll love it.

The loving it only starts once the figuring it out is in the past tense :-)

(I am British English, which may be why I'm more likely to use the perfect tense).

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Present Perfect sounds good :) –  Šime Vidas Jan 11 '11 at 17:03
This form is certainly better when the verb in the conditional denotes something happening over a period of time, eg “Once you’ve done your homework, you can go and play on the internet.” (“Once you do your homework…” sounds slightly wrong to me here.) However, when the conditional action is more momentary, eg “Once you figure out…”/“…have figured out”, or “Once you find the key…”/“…have found…”, both forms seem to work fine, to my ear. (Is there a term for this distinction of verb aspect in English? Can one use “perfective”/“imperfective” for it?) –  PLL Jan 11 '11 at 19:23
@Phil: I think you very well meant to say "Once you have figured out how this works, you will love it." I really don't see how having you have/you'll makes it more formal or more correct :) –  Jimi Oke Jan 11 '11 at 19:40
I'll stick with the first answer. Both answers are OK, but I have the feeling that the first one is easier to understand (for a non-native speaker). –  Šime Vidas Jan 12 '11 at 14:03
@PLL - good point re how "atomic" the action is. You can have done half your homework, you can't have half found your key! –  Phil Whittington Jan 13 '11 at 18:58

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