Future Simple tense.
The Future Simple tense is often called the “will tense” because we use the Future Simple with the auxiliary modal will. But the question is how do we make the Future Simple tense? The structure is easy to remember:
| subject + | auxiliary will + | main verb | |
| I/you/she/we | will | open | the door |
| Will | you | arrive | on time? |
Remember that in negative sentences in the Future Simple tense, we add not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. We also sometimes use shall instead of will, to form questions for’ I’ and ‘we’ in British English.
Extra info: The short form of shall for negative statement is shan’t but I used in spoken English but rarely in its written form. We use shall in the following ways :
- To make offers for using ‘we’ and ‘I’
- To make suggestions
- To express formal obligation
- To make a promise
- To describe the future formally.
Future Simple (WILL)
We use Future Simple when there is no plan or decision to do something : For example–
Hold on. I’II get a pen or
It’s late. I’ll take you to the station.
We use Future Simple to make a prediction about the future which means that we are saying something that we think will happen. Some examples are:
It will rain tomorrow or
Who do you think will get hired ?
We can use the verb ‘be’ even if we already made a plan or decision before the speaking.
I’ll be in London tomorrow.
To make a promise or when we offer to do something for example:
I wont be late or I’ll help you later.
For decisions that we make at the same moment:
It’s late. I’ll take you to the station or
we’re going to the cinema.
Extra info: we use expressions or words like: I think, Im sure,I promise,probably, I hope,I’m sure,I’m afraid.
How do we use going to?
When we have already made a decision before speaking.
When are we going to go home? or we’re going to have a quiz.
We also use going to to make a prediction about the future that are based on present facts for example:
Look at the clouds. It’s going to rain.
Note that we can use ‘going to‘ with ‘be’ in other tenses. if we want to talk about things that we already planned to do in the near future, we can use the Present continuous. Compare the examples Future Simple -I’m going to play basketball with my cousins tomorrow and Present continuous-I am playing basketball with my cousins tomorrow.
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