For a student who is still in the pre-intermediate level of English, it's very easy to think that 'will' is what we use to talk about future. To get to a B1 level, it's important to know that there are several ways to talk about future - not just one. Today, I'll look at the three main ways we talk about future in English: the use of 'will', 'going to + infinitive' and present continuous for future. This is a B1 level podcast! Here we go!
There is no future in English! No future! Oh, my goodness! If there's no future, what am I learning this language for? Well, I'm sure there will be a bright future for you if you learn English. What I meant was, there is no future tense in English. We have no verb form for the future. Unlike other languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French, for example, which all have a future verb form. To talk about the future, English uses other words: the modal auxiliary 'will', the 'going to' plus infinitive structure, the present continuous form and others too. But, we're going to concentrate on these three because they are the most common ways to talk about future.
I'm
going to study Chinese next year.
This is probably the easiest structure to use for talking about the future. Native speakers from other languages often find 'going to' quite intuitive and therefore fairly simple to learn. The word we could associate with going to to remember when we should say it is plans. Here are some examples of big important plans.
I'm going to study Chinese
next year.
When I finish university, I'm going to move
abroad.
John is going to buy a new house.
We also use 'going to' to talk about our intentions. There is perhaps some personal intention, an emphasis, we have which makes 'going to' the right choice for talking about the future.
I'm going to talk to my
boss tomorrow and let him know what I think about this new project!
My mum's
going to take the shoes back to the shop - she's
going to ask for a refund.
I'm going to pass
this exam if it's the last thing I do!
You can probably see that the person is expressing determination in these examples. They really want this thing to happen. That's 'going to'.
I often tell my students that the main reason we use present continuous for future is for actions we write in our diary. When I say diary, I mean the book or application where we write in things we schedule for the week ahead - for example a work diary. So the word is 'diary' and not 'agenda', which is something different in English - a false friend.
On Wednesday I'm having a meeting with the sales team.
At
6pm I'm giving a presentation.
On Saturday morning at 10 I'm playing golf
with Dave.
We must remember that present continuous is firstly an aspect to talk about things happening now. We must make sure it's clear that we are talking about a future or a listener will think we are talking about this moment in time.
I'm having a meeting with the sales team.
We assume we are talking about now - until we add the time adverb, 'on Wednesday'.
It's clear that a schedule in a diary and a plan or intention are similar in many ways, of course, and it's true that we can often use 'going to' or 'present continuous for future' with a very similar meaning. If we are not putting emphasis on intention, if it's clear the action is going to happen in the future, for example, we say 'tomorrow', you can use one or the other form.
I'm going to visit the new factory tomorrow.
I'm
visiting the new factory tomorrow.
'Will' can be used too much by students of English. In fact, it's probably less common than 'going to' or present continuous for future. When we use 'will', we are often just talking about predictions.
Do you think it'll rain
this evening?
I think you'll have a great time
at the summer camp.
Where will you be
this time tomorrow morning?
Although 'will' is more usual in these sentences, we could use 'going to' as well without any change in meaning.
Do you think it's going to rain
this evening?
I think you're going to have a
great time at the summer camp.
Where are you going
to be
this time tomorrow morning?
However, we cannot use present continuous for future for predictions.
I think it's raining this evening.
That sentence just doesn't make sense.
The use of 'will' can be a little more complicated. If you come over to PractisingEnglish.com, you can go to podcast 38 for another B1 level explanation of predictions with 'will' and 'going to'...
Now I'm going to explain an important use of 'will' which will help you to avoid making mistakes. We use 'will' when we are in conversation with somebody and ideas come to us as we are speaking. When we talk about those ideas that we have just thought of, we use 'will'.
'I can't come to English class tomorrow, teacher. Can
we change the date?'
'Right. Ok. We'll have the
class on Thursday.'
'I can't do this exercise. It's really difficult!'
'Don't
worry. I'll help you.'
(You and your grandmother
are sitting in the living-room when you hear the doorbell ring)
'Shall I
answer that?'
'No, don't worry, Gran. I'll go.'
There is really no other form we can use to express these 'instant ideas'. We definitely cannot use present simple as is possible in Spanish, for example.
Don't worry. I help you.
As this is dialogue, we will always use the contracted forms to: I'll, he'll, she'll, it'll, we'll, they'll.
So that's all for this podcast. At the Practising English audio script - podcast 121 - you can also find links to exercises on future forms.
Good bye for now!
Exercises for practice on talking about the future...
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