Level: intermediate
When we know about the future, we normally use the present tense.
1. We use the present simple for something scheduled:
We have a lesson next Monday.
The train arrives at 6.30 in the morning.
The holidays start next week.
It's my birthday tomorrow.
2. We can use the present continuous for plans or arrangements:
I'm playing football tomorrow.
They are coming to see us tomorrow.
We're having a party at Christmas.
3. We use will:
- when we express beliefs about the future:
It will be a nice day tomorrow.
I think Brazil will win the World Cup.
I'm sure you will enjoy the film.
- to mean want to or be willing to:
I hope you will come to my party.
George says he will help us.
- to make offers and promises :
I'll see you tomorrow.
We'll send you an email.
- to talk about offers and promises:
Tim will be at the meeting.
Mary will help with the cooking.
4. We use be going to:
- to talk about plans or intentions:
I'm going to drive to work today.
They are going to move to Manchester.
- to make predictions based on evidence we can see:
Be careful! You are going to fall. (= I can see that you might fall.)
Look at those black clouds. I think it's going to rain. (= I can see that it will rain.)
5. We use will be with an -ing form for something happening before and after a specific time in the future:
I'll be working at eight o'clock. Can you come later?
They'll be waiting for you when you arrive.
6. We can use will be with an -ing form instead of the present continuous or be going to when we are talking about plans, arrangements and intentions:
They'll be coming to see us next week.
I'll be driving to work tomorrow.
7. We often use verbs like would like, plan, want, mean, hope, expect to talk about the future:
What are you going to do next year? I'd like to go to university.
We plan to go to France for our holidays.
George wants to buy a new car.
8. We use modals may, might and could when we are not sure about the future:
I might stay at home tonight or I might go to the cinema.
We could see Mary at the meeting. She sometimes goes.
9. We can use should if we think there's a good chance of something happening:
We should be home in time for tea.
The game should be over by eight o'clock.
- Talking about the future 1
- Talking about the future 2
The future in time clauses and if-clauses
In time clauses with words like when, after, until we often use present tense forms to talk about the future:
I'll come home when I finish work.
You must wait here until your father comes.
They are coming after they have had dinner.
In clauses with if we often use present tense forms to talk about the future:
We won't be able to go out if it is raining.
If Barcelona lose tomorrow, they will be champions.
| Be careful! |
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We do not normally use will in time clauses and if-clauses:
but we can use will if it means want to or be willing to:
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Hi Melvin,
I can't see it here on this page, but I see a comment from you on this other page: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-referen…
Is that the one you mean? If not, it seems not to have come through and feel free to repost it.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Thanks for your information Jonathan. I've seen the reply from Kirk to my questions.
Best regards,
Hi Prap,
Both of these expressions emphasise how uniquely good this scene is. The first one refers to the future, meaning something like 'in your life, you won't see anything better than this'. This is a belief about the future (see more examples of this on the page above). The second one refers to the past until the present moment. It means that until now, you have never seen a better scene than this. It's more common to use this with the first person (the best scene I've ever seen), because I know my own experiences but I may not know what experiences another person has had.
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello ngaianna,
You can generally use 'will' in this way. It describes each thing as a single event rather than a repeated, regular or scheduled event, but it's not wrong to do that. The exception, I think, is when we talk about very fixed patterns such as days of the week. It's not grammatically wrong to say 'Tomorrow will be Friday' but it sounds very unusual to my ear.
As an aside, we don't use prepositions with 'last' or 'next', so we wouldn't say 'on next Friday' but rather just 'next Friday'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Yigido,
They are similar! But there is a difference. If you say I'll pass my exam, you are focusing on the exam result only. But if you say I'll be able to pass my exam, you're stating that you have the ability (e.g. the knowledge or the skills) to pass the exam. So, the focus is on your personal ability, as well as the exam result.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Yigido,
The word able means 'to have the ability to do something', so if you say I'll be able to pass my exam, it includes this meaning.
About your second question, it really depends on what you want to say as a speaker or writer! If you want to just focus on the exam result, then say I'll pass my exam. You could say this if, for example, this is part of a conversation where you tell somebody all about the exam (e.g. how difficult it will be, what the questions might be, and so on).
But, in other situations, I would say I'll be able to pass my exam. For example, if I am reflecting on my progress in my studies, then I need to consider not only my exam results but also the development of my abilities (e.g. knowledge or skills). So, this sentence fits well here.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Plokonyo,
If you say ... frames this as a real situation. I'm referring to the person really saying this in his/her real life. If you said ... frames it as just an imagined (i.e. hypothetical) situation that doesn't necessarily happen in his/her real life. Both phrases and meanings could be used here, but using If you said ... suggests that the situation is unlikely to happen.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Turki123456,
All of those sentences are fine. We don't use these forms after time markers such as 'before', but they are fine in the main clause.
You can read more about these constructions on this page:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/verbs-in-time-clauses-and-if-clauses
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello DaniWeebKage,
The meanings are very similar and the forms are often interchangeable, depending on the context and the speaker's intention.
Going to have several uses. It can be used to express an intention or a plan on the part of the speaker, describing something we have chosen to do. It can also describe the anticipated result of a present situation: I can see dark clouds, so it's going to rain.
Will be + verb-ing also has more than one use, but the relevant use here is to express an expectation. We use it to describe something that seems to the speaker to be part of the expected or normal sequence of events. A prediction of the weather based on what is typical would use this form, for example: In November it will be snowing in the mountains.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sokhom,
I'd recommend you ask your teacher about that. I'm afraid that this sentence is a little unnatural-sounding, so I can't be sure what will be considered correct. In standard British English, we typically say 'against the law', 'against the rules' or 'against regulations'.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ahmed Imam,
I don't understand the situation you are referring to. If you decide right now that you will meet Donna after school, the first one is correct. If you already had a plan to meet Donna after school, i.e. a plan that you previously made, then the second one would be the correct form.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sindhallb,
When a word has different possible meanings it is the context in which it is used (the sentence and the conversation/text around it) which makes the meaning or use clear.
If you're interested in the various uses of would then you can find them discussed on our various pages on modal verbs. Some pages deal specfically with particular modal verbs, such as would, while others deal with the uses of various modal verbs, such as ability, permission etc.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/modal-verbs
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello vnpthao,
The form here has a future meaning. It is an instruction with a similar meaning to 'you must do this' or 'this is what you should do'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Abhishek,
No, they are not contradictory. Remember that grammatical rules describe how words work, and grammar is not simply a tight system without any redundancy. It would be very weak if that were the case.
Both verb forms can refer to plans. The difference is in the perspective of the speaker on the plan or the future time. There has been some discussion of this recently on our Future continuous and future perfect page -- please have a look at the first couple of pages of comments there and I think Peter's answers there will help you make more sense of this.
If not, please feel free to ask us more there.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Allate,
When suggests that finishing is certain; it is only a question of time.
If suggests that the speaker does not know whether or not they will finish; it is possible that they will not finish.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kim Hui-Jeong,
I don't see any errors in the section that you referred to. Some people might prefer to call the past simple forms in the second conditional sentences a subjunctive form, but the example sentence is certainly correct. If there was a specific sentence that you think is wrong, you're welcome to copy that sentence here and then tell us what you think is wrong or don't understand. I'd also recommend you read our page that explains this grammar, but I'm afraid we don't provide exhaustive explanations of grammar points -- there are just too many possibilities.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello veve,
Both options are correct. When we talk about people's ages in this way we can use a very wide range of forms. For example, as well as the two you included you could also use these:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kim Hui-jeong,
I think this question will be best answered on the basis of concrete examples rather than general statements. Are there any sentences you have come across which you would like to ask about? If you have two or three examples then we'll be happy to comment on them and use them to highlight any relevant rules or tendencies.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Amit shukla,
The first sentence is fine. It talks about what the speaker intends to do in the future.
The second sentence does not seem very natural to me. If the plan is still current then you would use a present simple form like in the first sentence. If the plan is not currect then you would use a past simple form: We planned to go to France for our holidays... but then our plans changed.
You could use have planned in a different context:
Here, plan is used not to mean 'intend' as in your example but rather to mean 'prepare'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nina Z.
The sentence you ask about (with 'going to wait') sounds like a plan to me. I don't know what exactly the person is thinking, but it sounds as if they want or need to travel, and plan to wait until the restrictions are lifted before doing it.
Does that help?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Daniel smith141,
Your first sentence uses the present continuous form (be going to). This tells us that the action is something that has been arrranged in advance. For example, the speaker may have made reservations, bought tickets and so on.
Your second sentence uses the going to future form (be going to + verb, which describes plans or intentions. It tells us that the speaker has thought about the trip before and is not making a decision at the time of speaking. It does not tell us whether the speaker has arranged anything about the trip but only that the decision was made some time earlier. Note that there is a mistake in this sentence: you need to say ...go to America... and not just ...go America...
The sentences are a little confusing because the main verb is go. which is the same verb used in the going to form. If you change the main verb then the difference is easier to see:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Milca_Joy,
I think take would be better than do in this context. You could say do some jobs, but that does not necessarily mean getting paid for them.
In the first sentence both will and going to are possible. It depends upon whether this is a plan or a decision made at the time of speaking. If the person has thought about this before then going to is better.
In the second sentence had saved is not correct; save is fine. You could also change if to when if the speaker is sure that they will have enough money at some point.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sidra_
'will be done' is not just in the simple future, it is also a passive verb. Please follow the link and I think the explanation there will clear it up for you. Please don't hesitate to ask if not.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team