In this paper we study the covering relation
(
u
≻
v
)
(u \succ v)
in finitely generated free lattices. The basic result is an algorithm which, given an element
w
∈
FL
(
X
)
w \in {\text {FL}}(X)
, finds all the elements which cover or are covered by
w
w
(if any such elements exist). Using this, it is shown that covering chains in free lattices have at most five elements; in fact, all but finitely many covering chains in each free lattice contain at most three elements. Similarly, all finite intervals in
FL
(
X
)
{\text {FL}}(X)
are classified; again, with finitely many exceptions, they are all one-, two- or three-element chains.