EXPRESSING THE FUTURE
If you talk to a linguist, he or she may tell you that there is no
such thing as the “future” as far as the English
language is concerned!
We only have two groups of tenses; those that refer to events in past
time,
and those that talk about the present or the future.
Very often, we use a present
tense in
English to talk about future events:
look at this short dialogue:
“Where are
you going next
summer?”
“We’re staying at home.
I’m working all
summer!”
“Oh what a
pity. Don’t you
even get a week off?”
“Well
perhaps; we may go
to Wales for a couple of days.”
Although this dialogue clearly
refers
to the future, the verbs
are all in forms of the present. There is no “will”,
no “going
to”.
This does not mean that using a clear future tense would be
wrong;
it would be possible to add the words going to to stress the future
nature
of events (remembering that going to is actually the present
progressive
tense of go .)
“Where are
you going
to go this summer?”
“We’re going to stay
at
home; I’m going
to work all summer.”
“Oh what a
pity. Aren’t
you even going to get
a week off?”
“Well
perhaps;
maybe we'll go to
Wales ....”
But in most cases, this would sound heavy.
Present forms
are the simplest
way of expressing future time in many cases: the present
progressive often expresses non-defined time in
the future,
the present simple
refers to instant
defined moments in time, or events that will occur regularly.
Using
"will"
or "going to"
A
“future”
with will
is used to imply a deliberate
predetermined action.
Look at this dialogue:
“Are
you coming home tonight,
darling?”
“Yes; my
plane gets
in
at 8.15.”
“O.K. then,
I’ll meet you
at the airport.”.
A future form with will
is also
needed whenever it is necessary to avoid confusion between present and
future (for example when there is no adverb of time present) Compare:
I see / I’ll see
- I’m there / I’ll be there
Will
and
going to ARE NOT
USED...
a) With modal verbs can, must, should, could, would.
If it is essential to mark the future aspect of a modal structure,
it is necessary to use have to instead of must,
and be
able to instead of can, as in:
You’ll
have to do better
next time (but you could also say: You must
do better next time.)
b) in time clauses after if, when, as soon
as, unless, after, before, while etc.
We’ll have a picnic
tomorrow
if it’s
dry.
Open the door as soon
as you hear
the bell.
I’ll tell you the rest
of the story when we get
home.
Generally speaking, will
is not
used in subordinate clauses of
any type.
I’ll sell it
to the first
person who makes
a good offer.
They’ll mend it for you
while you wait.
You’ll do whatever
you’re
told to do!
Using
shall
Shall
and the negative form
shan't
are not often used in modern English; more than just expressing a
future action, they express a future obligation or certainty, and are
normally only used in the first person singular (with I), as in.
I
shall
certainly visit the British Museum when I'm next in London.
I shan't
be able to come next week, as I'm away on business.
But in both of these example,
will
/ won't are quite acceptable alternatives.
To avoid any risk of error, the simplest principle to adopt is "
never say shall".
Don't use these forms! They are slightly archaic, and there is no case
in which they are the only option possible.
