welcome back to learn academic English I'm Jenna and on this channel I teach intermediate
and advanced level lessons for English Learners who want to take their English to the next level
one of the things that I teach all the time is grammar and I know that grammar rules can
be tricky but I try to help break them down in an easy and clear way in today's lesson
I'm going to talk about how to talk about the future and you might be thinking well I know
how to talk about the future in English it's easy I can use will or I can use be
going to but in today's lesson I'm going to be focusing on four basic ways that we talk about
the future and these are things that we use all the time in conversation in writing all the time
before we get into these rules please don't forget to give this video a like if you find it helpful
leave a comment and practice with me below and subscribe if you want more lessons like this one
and please note that I offer memberships to my YouTube community and please check it out if you
want more practice with me including personalized feedback okay so let's get into these rules and
the first one is to use will plus verb for the future and of course this one is pretty
easy because when we use will plus verb we don't need to worry about making any changes to the verb
it's I will you will he will plus the verb but the problem with will is that we only use it in
some pretty specific situations first we use it for promises for example I Will Always Love You
I will be here for you anytime you need me I Will Always Love You okay the second one is for
weak predictions and week predictions are things that we think will happen we're not too sure but
we think they will happen for example it's been so cold lately the weather will be better soon
so I'm not totally sure but I think so and third for will we use for immediate decisions what does
that mean that means that it's something that we decide that we will do right now for example the
phone is ringing and you can say I will get it or the doorbell rings I will get it I will get it or
you see someone who needs help and you can say I'll help you notice that will can be contracted
and in that case we say I'll like I will I'll I'll I'll help you I'll help you you'll heal
it'll wheel and they'll will be there soon
number two be going to plus verb so this one is a little bit trickier because if first of all it has
four different words but also because you have to remember to conjugate the verb be for the subject
so I am going to you are going to he she or it is going to we are going to they are going to and you
can use contractions I'm going to you're going to he's going to we're going to they're going to
another thing you want to notice with this one is that when we are speaking going to sounds
like gonna this is very common in American English gonna I'm gonna do it he's gonna come she's gonna
be there okay so very very common that going to changes and sounds like gonna sometimes you can
see Gonna written also but it's not something we use in formal writing so when do we use B going to
plus verb we USB going to plus verb for two things first for plans for example I'm gonna study all
day tomorrow or we're going to travel to Europe next year those are plans those are things that I
know I am going to do I'm going to marry her the second reason is for strong predictions and you
might be thinking well what's a weak prediction what's a strong prediction you know it's sometimes
the line between these can get blurry but a strong prediction means that something that you think is
going to happen based on something that you can see or some kind of evidence for example look
at those dark clouds on the horizon it's going to rain very soon okay so that's a strong prediction
I'm going to be sick I'm going to puke or that movie was so good I think you're gonna love it
number three we can use present progressive to talk about the future so this is where things
get tricky because usually present progressive and the next one we'll talk about simple present
are used for the present not the future but there are some situations in which we use
these present tenses to actually talk about the future so first of all with present progressive
or it's also known as present continuous you want to remember that the form is the verb be
plus verb plus ing okay and remember that the B verb has to be conjugated for each of those
people for example I'm studying your studying he or she is studying we're studying their studying
now present progressive can be used for the future to talk about plans that have a specific time
so what's the difference between these two well sometimes we use both in the same situation but
for this one we're really thinking about a specific time now you know tomorrow afternoon
or tonight or tomorrow at 8 A.M or on Saturday for example I'm having lunch with Kim on Saturday
I'm going to a party tonight that's present progressive I'm going to a party tonight I'm
going to a party tonight what are you doing tonight okay could we use be going to in that
situation we could because that's also a plan we could say I'm going to go to a party tonight
what are you going to do tonight I'm going to go to a party tonight but most native speakers
will just use the present progressive in this case it's more common and it's a little bit
easier because it's shorter what are you doing tonight what are you doing tonight
okay let's go to the last one which is simple present and this one is used in only very
specific situations the simple present is used to talk about the future when we refer to schedules
or timetables okay so what does that mean well a timetable is like imagine that you go to the
train station and you see that big timetable shows you all the trains that are going to leave that
day that's a timetable it's something that happens usually regularly and it has a specific scheduled
time and we often use this with these verbs open for example the store opens tomorrow at 8 am
close Start begin finish and arrive leave take off so that means to leave especially for an airplane
when an airplane takes off get off and this would be like what time do you get off work tomorrow
I get off at 9 00 pm tomorrow so that means I finished working what time do you get off tonight
what time you get home from school tonight and even the verb be so let's look at a couple
of examples my flight leaves tomorrow at noon okay when is the time the time is in the future
tomorrow but we use simple present because this is a schedule or a timetable situation
my flight takes off at noon tomorrow my flight leaves at noon tomorrow
we could also say the wedding is on Saturday at 6 pm the wedding is on Saturday at 6 pm
why do we use simple present because that is something that is on a schedule when's the
wedding next Saturday so how can you learn and practice these the best thing to do is to think
of some very common examples and you can get them by getting the link to the handout below that you
can use to learn these at home and then try to think of very common situations for example what
are you doing tonight present progressive because I'm asking you about your plans at a specific time
okay or what are you going to do in the future so that one is be going to because
I'm asking you about your plans but I'm not really talking about a very specific time
okay remember promises what you promised you will do and for predictions you can use both but if
it's a stronger prediction you're going to use be going to and you want to think in general that be
going to is stronger than will because will you be going to to talk about plans which is something
pretty strong it's on my calendar it's something I know I am going to do and for stronger predictions
and remember that we use will for immediate decisions okay I'll pay today I'll help you I'll
get it so practice with me in the comments below I'll leave some questions that you can answer
to help you practice these different forms don't forget to get the handout so you can study at home
and please let me know if you have questions and I hope to see you back here again soon take care