Future reference - Easy Learning Grammar

Verb forms

• It will take several years to finish.
• Jean will look after the dogs while we’re away.
• I shall simply tell her to mind her own business.
• We shall see.

• He failed his exam last year; this year he is going to work harder.
• You’d better take the washing in; it is going to rain.

• Sarah and Harriet are meeting at ten o’clock on Tuesday.
• I am flying to Glasgow on Friday.

• The main film starts at 2.45 p.m.
• We leave at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

• I was hoping to meet James, but by the time I arrive he will have gone home.

• I’m sorry I can’t stop and chat; I’m about to leave for work.

• What will you be doing on Saturday morning? Oh, I’ll be shopping as usual.

• The President is to attend an EU–Russia summit tomorrow.

• The contracted form is ’ll for both verbs, so there is no difference in informal speech.
  • I’ll probably be late, but I expect they’ll be on time.
  The contracted negative forms are won’t and shan’t.

• We won’t come.
• We shan’t come.

• If there are two verbs in the sentence, it is normal not to repeat the modal form before the second one.

• I won’t see him or speak to him for six months.

• to talk about future facts.

• I shan’t see Mary next week.
• I’ll be on the plane this time tomorrow.

• to make promises or reassurances.

• I’ll be home in time for tea.
• This won’t happen again, I can assure you.

• to announce a decision that the speaker has just made.

• Er, I’ll have the pizza Margherita and a side salad, please.
• Right, I shall ask him, and see if his story matches yours.

• to express negative intention, using won’t.

• I won’t go there again. The service was dreadful.

• to express refusal.

• I won’t put up with any more of this silly behaviour.
• I’ve tried to persuade her but she won’t come.

• to talk about an event in the future, possibly in the distant future. A time clause may be used.

• People will be amazed when they hear about this in years to come.

• to refer to inevitable actions or events that will take place in the future.

• Christmas is past, but it will come again next year.

• to express an opinion about a future event after verbs such as believe, expect, hope, know, and think.

• I expect he’ll be home soon.
• I hope you’ll be very happy in your new home.

• to express a real possibility in conditional sentences. See Conditional clauses.

• If you phone after six I’ll tell you all about it.

• I am going to wait.
• He is going to wait.
• I am not going to wait.
• He is not going to wait.
• Is he going to wait?
• Are they going to wait?

• to express intention about the future.

• Mary isn’t going to study art; she’s going to be a nurse.

• to talk about things that have already been decided.

• Is Jim going to leave his job? – Yes, he is.
• Where’s Mary? She said she was going to come early.

• to make a prediction about the future, often the very near future, based on something in the present.

• Watch the milk! It is going to boil over!
• Sally never does any work; she is going to fail her exams.

• Judy was going to meet me, but she was ill and couldn’t come.
• She was obviously going to get blisters with those new shoes.

• The train leaves Edinburgh at 10.10 a.m. and arrives in London at 3.20 p.m.
• These are the arrangements for Friday: doors open at 7 p.m., the Mayor arrives at 7.30 p.m., and the meeting starts at 7.45 p.m.