Future Forms
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IFC Session 4
Present Forms used in Future
Present Continuous
• Often interchangeable with the going to future
for a planned event:
What are you doing tonight?
Present Simple
• Used for timetabled events, programs, and
regular schedules:
The train leaves at 6 pm
What time does the film start?
Mulder
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IFC Session 4
Will Future
• Used for general predictions (no present evidence):
In the year 2020 unemployment will be much higher.
• Used for spontaneous decisions:
Is that the phone? I’ll answer it.
• Used for offers and refusals:
I will open the tin for you.
I won’t talk to her until she apologises!
• Used for promises: I promise I will work harder next
year.
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IFC Session 4
Going to Future
• Used for an intention or something planned
by the speaker:
I am going to the cinema tonight. Do you want
to come?
• Used for situations where you are expressing
certainty based on evidence:
That rollercoaster was too much for me. I’m
going to be sick.
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IFC Session 4
Future continuous
• Used for talking about something that will be
in progress at a point in the future:
This time next month we will be sunning
ourselves on the beach in Spain.
Signal words: this time next… , in one month’s
time, when I’m 60
• Often used for a decision or a plan:
I’ll be meeting Kate tomorrow anyway. I can
give her the papers then if you want.
Mulder
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IFC Session 4
Perfect Forms in the Future
Future perfect
• Used to say that an action will have finished by a point
in the future:
This time next year I will have hopefully passed the IFC
Exam (emphasis on the completion of the action)
Future perfect continuous
• Used for an action that will have been taking place up
to a point in the future:
This time next year I will have been studying for 18
months.
Signal words: for and since
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IFC Session 4
Other future expressions
• Be to- used in more formal contexts to talk about
arrangements / plans (and sometimes orders):
The factory is to be torn down and rebuilt.
You are to pay Porky if you speak German.
• On the point of / about to
I’m about to make a cup of tea if you want one. We
are on the point of making a break-through.
• Due to
She’s due to arrive any minute.
Mulder
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IFC Session 4
Tenses in Time clauses
• With certain keywords we need to use another pattern of
tenses even though the action referred to may be in the
future:
As soon as he gets here, we will leave for the restaurant.
(NOT: As soon as he will get here, he will…)
• It is also possible to use the present perfect to highlight the
completion of an action before this point in time:
As soon as he has finished eating, we will leave for the
cinema.
(NOT: As soon as he will have finished eating, we will…)
• Keywords: When, after, as soon as, by the time, while,
once
Mulder
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IFC Session 4