How do we usually talk about the future in English?
Present tenses to talk about the future
We saw in my previous blog post that when we know about the future, we often use the present tenses. We use the Present Simple tense for something scheduled, or which you cannot usually alter: For example;
- We have a lecture next Monday (it will happen whether or not we are there).
- The bus arrives at 8.30 in the evening (even if you’re not on it, it will still arrive at that time).
We also saw that we can use the Present Progressive (or Continuous) tense for plans or arrangements already made, but which can be changed. In all of the examples below, plans have been made but, unlike a timetable or a schedule, they can be changed or cancelled by any of the participants or by a third party:
- He’s playing tennis tomorrow (he’s reserved the tennis court and has already arranged to play against his friend).
- We‘re having a family gathering next weekend (as long as no one becomes ill and we have to postpone or cancel it!).
Although this use of the present tense is probably the most common way to talk about the future, most learners of English would probably say that this is not the way in which they were first taught how to talk about the future in English. As I indicated at the beginning of my last blog post, the easiest way to explain grammar to new learners is by reference to their own native language. So, the most common way in French to talk about the future is to use the ‘future form’ of the verb in question. So, for example ‘je mangerai demain matin’ falls into neither of the above categories, i.e., it’s probably not a plan which you have made, nor is it part of a schedule which cannot be changed; it’s just something which ‘will’ happen. So, we say ‘I will eat tomorrow morning’.
The Simple Future – ‘Will’
We use ‘will’ in a number of ways.
We use it spontaneously to express something which we have just decided to do now, or in the future, whether in the next few minutes or further into the future:
- I’ll answer the telephone (the phone has just unexpectedly started to ring)
- Can’t you operate the camera? Here, I’ll show you! (I’ve just decided that that’s the best thing to do)
- You don’t have to go on holiday alone… I’ll go with you! (we haven’t discussed this yet; I’ve just thought of the idea!)
We use it when we talk about our beliefs about the future:
- It will be a nice day tomorrow (the man doing the weather report said so).
- I think she’ll be happier at her new school (she told me why she doesn’t like her old school and I believe that the new one is better).
- I’m sure your parents will like your new girlfriend (she seems very nice and their ‘kind of person’).
We use it to mean ‘want to’ or ‘be willing to’:
- I hope you will come to my party (I hope that you come because you want to).
- George says he will help us (he’s said that he is happy to do so).
We use it to offer or promise something:
- I‘ll see you later (don’t worry – I promise!).
- We‘ll call you later (to reassure you or answer your question, etc.).
- Mary will help with the cooking (you won’t have to do it on your own).
But… when is the Future Simple Tense ‘will’ not used to talk about the future?
There is one more, less commonly discussed use of the future ‘will’ which I need to mention here, and that has to do with ‘expectation’. In situations where you believe that another person knows, or has already experienced, learnt, or, indeed ‘done’ something, we often use ‘will’ to establish that fact. I mention this here because it is not a concept normally known to many of my advanced English language students. For example, if you want to express that ‘you imagine that students of English have already learnt that there are many irregular verbs’, you would probably say in French something like;
(J’imagine que) les étudiants d’anglais savent qu’il y a beaucoup de verbes irréguliers.
Here, ‘j‘imagine’ indicates an ‘expectation’ or a ‘belief’, because you don’t know for certain that this is the case… you just ‘imagine’ that it probably is the case. However, in English, we do not have to add ‘I imagine that…’ or ‘I expect that’ because the adding of the future tense ‘will’, implies that sense of expectation or belief without having to say so. So, for the above statement, an English speaker can say;
‘Students of English will know that there are many irregular verbs’
Here, you are not predicting the future, nor stating an intention, in fact you are not even talking about the future, but are invoking an ‘imagined’ present in stating what you ‘believe’ to be the case now.
The ‘Going to’ Future
This is simply the English equivalent of the French ‘aller faire’. Note, however, that in English we use the Present Progressive (or Continuous) tense only, i.e., the verb ‘to be’ + going to, and not the Present Simple ‘to go’ to.
We use to be ‘going to’ to talk about plans or intentions:
- I‘m going to take the train to the city today (it’s their intention).
- They are going to buy a new car (they are planning to do it).
We also use it to predict things based on what we perceive from our senses:
- Be careful! You’re going to break it! (I can see by the way you’re holding it that you might break it)
- Listen to that terrible noise coming from the washing machine. I think it‘s going to explode! (I can hear the noise and so I believe that it means it might explode)
- Turn the oven down! You’re going to burn the cake! (I can see that the oven is too turned up too high or I can smell it burning already)
The Future Progressive
We use the Future Progressive tense ‘will be + ing’ for something ‘happening’ before and after a specific time in the future. It describes a longer activity ‘happening’ in the future at a certain point in time or during which something else might also happen (the nearest equivalent to this form in French would be ‘être en train de faire’):
- I‘ll be exercising at the gym at eight o’clock. Can you come after nine?
- He‘ll be washing the car when you visit him, so he’ll probably be very wet!
We can also use ‘will be’ with an -ing form instead of the Present Progressive (or Continuous) or ‘be going to’ when we are talking about plans, arrangements and intentions. This is my personal favourite way to talk about a future because not only does it indicate that you have a plan but, because it uses the future ‘will’ and the progressive forms together, it really helps the listener to visualise a continuous activity happening over a period of time in the future:
- He’ll be coming to see us next week (you can imagine him in the future, walking up to our front door, knocking and walking into the house)
- I‘ll be driving to work all next week (you can picture me in the car on different days, maybe in the rain, stuck in traffic and listening to the radio)
Other future and modal forms to talk about the future
We often use verbs like ‘would like’, ‘plan’, ‘want’, ‘mean’, ‘hope’, ‘expect’ to talk about the future, and we use modals ‘may’, ‘might’ and ‘could’ when we are not sure about the future, and so we will be looking at those in a ‘future’ blog.
Thanks for reading!
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Thank you,
Martin
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