Grammar: Future tenses
In English, there are various ways to express an activity in the future. Unfortunately the tenses are not simply interchangeable, but each one of the following possibilities has its own field of use.
Going-to future is used to talk about intentions, plans or decisions that have been made before the time of speaking. In this case, it is more or less interchangeable with the present continuous form. It can also be used for predictions, especially if the outcome is clear.
Will future is used to express spontaneous decisions made at the time of speaking and for making predictions in the future with an indefinite outcome.
Signal words: perhaps, probably and phrases like "I (don’t) think/ I expect/I guess/I’m (not) sure/I reckon"
In spoken English, the apostrophised form won’t is used for negative sentences.
Will can also be used in the continuous form (will be doing something) to talk about an action that will be in progress at a point of time in the future, e.g. They will be pouring the concrete tomorrow afternoon. The future perfect form is used for actions that will be completed before a point of time in the future, e.g. The carpenters will have completed the roof by this time next week.
Simple present is used to talk about schedules and programmes.
Present continuous is used for plans and arrangements as well as actions just before they set in.
Page-ID: 3321
active page
no notes
active learning unit
no notes
