Fun with Future Tenses
2024-12-13
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1For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.
2This week, we are going to talk about the future tenses.
3There are several ways to talk about future events in English.
4Compared to the past and present, future tenses are usually more flexible.
5Let's start with will. To form the simple future, use will and then the simple form of the verb.
6For example, "I will go to the store."
7In everyday conversation, will often gets shortened, which can be difficult for English learners to hear.
8For example, "I'll leave tomorrow" or "He'll go to the store."
9You can use will to express a desire to do something.
10"I'll help you move tomorrow" or "I'll answer the phone."
11The second form of the simple future is be going to.
12For example, "I am going to start a new job tomorrow."
13Use be going to when you already have a plan to do something.
14When you say "I'm going to start a new job tomorrow," you made the plan in the past.
15If you do not have a plan, use will.
16If you are making a prediction about the future, you can use will or be going to.
17You can say, "She will win the election" or "She is going to win the election"-the meaning is the same.
18In casual conversation, most Americans will change going to to gonna.
19Be careful with this expression.
20You might want to avoid using the reduced form, gonna, in formal situations.
21You should never use it in professional or academic writing.
22Another way to express the future is with shall.
23Shall has the same meaning as will to express the future.
24Listen to a famous speech by American General Douglas MacArthur.
25General MacArthur is talking about his escape from the Philippines during World War II.
26"When I landed on your soil, I said to the people of the Philippines whence I came, 'I shall return.'"
27"I shall return" is one of the most famous quotes related to World War II.
28But these days, shall seems very formal and a bit old-fashioned in American English.
29It is more common in British English.
30Sometimes a present tense can express the future.
31Imagine you have a flight to Chicago tomorrow.
32There are several ways to express the future in this situation.
33Since you have a plan, you can use be going to.
34"I am going to fly to Chicago tomorrow."
35You could also use the present progressive, "I am flying to Chicago tomorrow."
36The meaning is almost the same.
37The present progressive just emphasizes that the flight is a scheduled event.
38If you are referring to a fixed schedule or timetable, you can even use the simple present to express the future.
39For example, "The flight to Chicago arrives at 7:00."
40The simple present here shows that the flight has a regular set schedule.
41Let's move on to the future progressive.
42To form the future progressive, use will be followed by the -ing form of the verb.
43For example, "I will be working when you arrive."
44Use the future progressive to talk about an event that will be in progress (or unfinished) in the future.
45Speakers use the future progressive to talk about more than one future action.
46For example, "Don't call me after 9:00 because I will be studying" or "I will be sleeping when you get home."
47There are other ways to express the future, such as the future perfect and future perfect progressive, but they are rare.
48A native speaker may never use them in an entire lifetime.
49Let's look at some common mistakes we see in all of the future tenses we have discussed.
50First, remember that you cannot use will in a time clause.
51For example, "I am going to visit her when I will arrive" should be "I am going to visit her when I arrive."
52The when phrase, also known as a time clause, uses the simple form of the verb in a future tense.
53Another common mistake is with the third person -s.
54"He will meets me tomorrow" should be "He will meet me tomorrow."
55There is quite a bit of flexibility with future tenses; sometimes there is little or no difference among different forms.
56If you have a choice, use the simplest tense.
57For VOA Everyday Grammar, I'm Jill Robbins.
58And I'm Jonathan Evans.