14.4. Grammar. Future tenses.

What are the future tenses in English? How many different ways of expressing the future can you think of? Think about the following;

Timetabled events. These are expressed using the present simple. ‘The trains always arrive late.’ ‘The buses always get here at the same time.’

Spontaneous decisions. These are almost always expressed with the present simple; ‘will’ or occasionally with ‘shall’ in British English. ‘I’m hungry!’ ‘I’ll get you another couple of doughnuts.’

Planned actions. Either with ‘going to’ or the present continuous. ‘I’m meeting Tricia tonight.’ Or ‘I’m going to meet Tricia tonight.’

Arrangements like those that you would write down in your diary. The most natural way for native English speakers to express this idea, is to use the present continuous. ‘We are visiting the Halston Palace café for lunch, then we are returning to the squat later.’

Predictions. There is little difference between ‘will’ ‘shall’ and ‘going to’ for prediction. ‘Taurus. You are going to have a romantic encounter this afternoon with a work-mate, who you will meet by the photocopier.’

Give examples of the future simple, the future continuous,

‘I will be marrying the receptionist this time next month,’

the future perfect, ‘I will have been on a honeymoon with here by Christmas,’

the future perfect continuous. ‘We will have been going out with each other for two weeks this Saturday.’

What is the difference between ‘will’ and ‘shall’? What are all the negative and interrogative forms of these future tenses?

Outside Britain ‘shall’ is not often used. In Britain it has one important use. That is for first person singular or plural questions (in other words for offers or suggestions). ‘Shall I open the door, if your boyfriend arrives?’ ‘Shall we pretend that we are not here?’ All other positive sentences and questions take ‘will’. ‘Will you open this door? I know that you’re in there!’ ‘Will he break the door down?’ ‘God! I hope he won’t.’ Many students will observe that they have heard ‘shall’ used in many other types of situations in Britain, often in positive and negative structures too. This is because there are certain class connotations to the word ‘shall’ and it’s not-so-common negative form ‘shan’t’. ‘I shall tell security to remove him,’ means the same as, ‘I will...’ but sounds more snobby. The question is whether you are learning English in order to make friends in high society, or  with the aristocracy, or whether you want to learn English to get a job in a local street market. ‘Will’ and its negative ‘won’t’ are perfectly good enough for us ‘normal’ people. Using only ‘will’ and ‘won’t’ you shall make you perfectly well understood. Overusing ‘shall’ shall simply make you sound pretentious and unnatural, shan’t it? But that shan’t be all bad, shall it Lady Winthorpe?