Ways to Express Future

If you talk to a linguist, he or she may tell you that there is no such
thing as the future tense 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. But let's not
split hairs; for all practical purposes, English like other languages has
future tenses: one of these is identical to the present tense, and the
other is formed using modal auxiliaries.

FORMS OF THE FUTURE IN ENGLISH

1. The present tense used as a future tense
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?

Were staying at home. Im working all summer!
Oh what a pity. Dont 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?

Were going to stay at home; Im going to work all summer.
Oh what a pity. Arent 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.

NOMBRE: SUAREZ PALLASCO CURSO: 1 CIENCIAS C

MARIA JOSELYN
2. The future with "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, Ill 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 / Ill see - Im there / Ill be there

Will and going to ARE NOT USED...

a) With modal verbs can, could, must, should, 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:
Youll have to do better next time
One could also say: You must do better next time.
See also: can, could, must, should

b) in time clauses after if, when, as soon as, unless, after, before,
while etc.

NOMBRE: SUAREZ PALLASCO CURSO: 1 CIENCIAS C

MARIA JOSELYN