CHAPTER 8

8.1. USES AND MEANINGS OF SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE AND

CONTINUOUS FUTURE TENSE

SIMPLE FUTURE

FUTURE CONTINUOUS

1. for an action which will merely

1. for an action which will be in full

progress (in the next interval):

take place in the future; there is no

time indicator:
John will bring the cakes.

I shall be reading in the library.

2. for a future action when the time is

mentioned:
We shall go to Greece in August/next
summer.

2. for an action which will develop in

the future; the time is mentioned:
I shall be digging in the garden tomorrow.

3. for an action which will happen at a

given moment in the future:

3. for an action which will be in full

progress at a given moment in the future:
I shall be recording some music at 4
oclock tomorrow.

We shall set off at 7 tomorrow.

4. for an action which will happen round a
time point in the future (no interest is
taken in the development of the action):
By 12 oclock we will be already at the
cottage.
He will come over by 5 tomorrow.

4. for an action which will be in full

progress round a time point in the future:
I shall be chattering over a cup of tea
with my friend by 7 tomorrow. Im looking
forward to it.

5. as part of a future program, as a mere

statement:
Look me up tomorrow. I shall be at the
university between 9 and 12.
Between 10 and 11 tomorrow we shall
sign the contract.

5. for an action which will be in full

progress between two time points in
the future:
I shall be flying to Iasi between 9 and 11
tomorrow.

6. for an action which will take place

within a certain future interval (no
interest in the development of the action):
I shall look in at the museum these days.
I want to see the new paintings. Ill
drop in at Johns in the afternoon.

6. for an action in full progress

within a certain future interval:
I shall be working a lot these days/this
week.

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7.
No corresponding value

7. with adverbs like: all day long

tomorrow, all the next week:
Ill be painting the garage all day long
tomorrow.

8. with two simultaneous actions

which will merely take place in the
future:
You will do the shopping and I will post
the letters when we go out.

8. a) with two simultaneous future

actions:
He will be watering the flowers and I will
be cooking the dinner.
b) with an action in full progress
interrupted by another future action
expressed by a time-point verb:
I will be listening to Vivaldis Seasons
when you come in the afternoon.

9. to express the speakers intention, or

will:
I will send Prof. D. Snelling an e-mail.
I will stay here for a week
(formal)

9.

10. to express a decision made at the

moment of speaking:
I think Ill call home right away.

10. to show that a future action has

already been decided:
Prof. Jones will be delivering a speech
on finances.

11. for repeated or habitual actions, with

adverbs of frequency:
He will read in the library three times a
week.
He will come and see me sometimes.

11. for repeated actions, to express

surprise, admiration, annoyance:
She will be going to the skating-rink
twice a week.

12. for actions which will happen as a

matter of course:
The stores will have their summer sales
soon.

12. to express probability:

They will be having modern womens
shoes next week.

a) for an intended action which will

be in full progress within a certain
future interval:
Ill be planting flowers the whole
afternoon.
Ill be staying here for two more days.
b) future arrangements:
Well be dining out tomorrow.

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- used to offer to
something for people:
- to make suggestions:
SHALL

MODAL FUTURE
do Shall I help you off with your coat?
Shall I tell him to come later?

- to ask about what we ought What time shall I come back from the
to do (obligation):
party? (= ought I to come)
- to make threats:

You shall be punished if you do that again.

- to express necessity:

You shall get all the remedies prescribed if

you want to feel better.
I will do my best to come the first at the
competition.
I promise I wont be a failure.

- to make promises:
WILL
- to make requests:

Will you pick me up after work? (=please

decide whether to do that or not).

BE GOING TO
1) for intentions:
Im going to talk to them about that thought.
2) for future actions which have already been decided:
Were going to send our son to college.
about things that have already been decided be going to and Present
Progressive are used, but not, shall/will:
Shes going to have a baby in summer.
Shes having a baby in summer.
(but not * Shell have ....)
with verbs of movement Present Progressive is very common:
Im going shopping in the afternoon.
Were going away for the week-end.
3) in asking for future actions to be decided, when making offers and requests.
Compare: Are you going to lend me those two dictionaries?
(Have you already decided?)
Will you give me those...?
(Please decide whether you lend them to me).
4) for strong resolution or determination:
Im going to hold my opinions to the mast.

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5) for promises, decisions either to do smth. definitely or to do it under certain

circumstances, together with Simple Future:
I wont talk to her again.
Im not going to talk....
6) in predictions, together with the future forms:
Hes going to take a difficult exam.
Youre going to love him when you see what kind of a man he is.
Youre going to be a failure.
Youll be a failure
7) about things which we see now are certain to happen, i.e. for present evidence:
The sky is cloudy; its going to rain.
My God! Were going to crash!
8) for threats, being more common in Modern English than shall:
Hes going to suffer.
Hell suffer.
be going to is used with any tense or verb form:
- with Past Tense: I was just going to call for you.
- with modals: She loves David. She may be going to marry him.
- with Perfect for an intention which has not been achieved:
For the past two years theyve been going to do up the house. Now at last they are
doing it up.
- with passive: The road is going to be paved.

TO BE ABOUT TO
be about to + infinitive =just going to.
I was about to leave home when the telephone rang.
not about to (Am E) = unwilling to
Im not about to go there myself.

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8.2. INTERACTIVE ACTIVTIES

Exercise 1.Comment on the differences between Simple Future and Future Continuous.
Exercise 2. Refer to the types of modality expressed by Future Tense.
Exercise 3. Use the right form of the verbs in brackets to express futurity in the following
sentences:
1. The President has a few bodyguards who (to protect) him.
2. I (not to watch) television these days because I (to be) very busy learning for my
exam. I (to go) in for this difficult exam on Wednesday.
3. There (to be) a meeting where they (to bring) up all these financial problems.
4. The wall (to keep) people out of the garden.
5. It seems it (to clear) up a little, so we (to set) off early tomorrow.
6. I (to make) some cookies till you arrive.
7. You (not to find) a cheaper restaurant than this.
8. Who (to break) the news to them?
9. I (to wait) downstairs while you are getting dressed, but I (not to wait) long.
10. You (to make) yourself understood. Im sure you (not to make) many mistakes.
11. By 9 oclock tomorrow I (to travel) to Bucharest. I (to arrive) there at 10:30.
12. Dont come over in the afternoon. I (to learn) for the written paper till late at
night.
Exercise 4. Give the meanings of the Future Tense in the following sentences:
1. The band will be performing somewhere.
2. This will be the place where the old church stood.
3. However carefully he may drive, he will have an accident eventually; there are
holes all over the road there.
4. Wherever I may roam, I will still be thinking of you.
5. We must get there earlier or (else) we wont get a seat.
6. He shall never tell a soul.
7. You must move the tool box away, or the car will crash it.
8. He shall do it all by himself, whatever you may say.
9. Shall we take a few minutes rest?
10. We must call him back, or (else) he shall be upset.
11. The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.
12. That shall be a good sign for you.
13. You shall make a good job of that, however hard it may be.
14. Wonders will never cease.
15. Your best friend shall do you a lot of harm.
16. That will cause splitting headaches.
17. Ill tell you what: get him look into the causes of the incident first.
18. Ill eat my hat if he pays a penny.
19. If employers will treat workers fairly they will not go on strikes.
20. If you will focus on such a topic you will find out interesting things.

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Exercise 5. Point out which of the modal concepts promise, irony, annoyance, irritation,
advice, good mood, prediction etc. are expressed by the Future Tense in the following
sentences and choose the right paraphrase for each italicised idiom: well make him
behave himself; tell him to stay calm; we will settle things right; hell pay for it; tell
him to stop trying to fool me; can I invite you to dinner?; the quality of life will be
diminished; what is now an opinion, belief in one small area will be accepted far more
widely; if you can help me now Ill do the same for you. Give similar examples:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Dont worry. We will throw that frog right into the water.
If he comes again well bring out the big guns!
Look here! He shall save the hearts and flowers.
He shall keep his pants on, he mustnt do anything stupid!
Can I twist your arm to have dinner with me?
The world will be a poorer place when he is not here.
What Manchester says today, London will say tomorrow.
You scratch my back and Ill scratch yours.

Exercise 6. Translate into English:

1. i voi explica de ce nu voi renuna niciodat la aceast idee i sunt sigur c m va
nelege.
2. Vom prinde trenul de ora 12 cu condiia s nu ntrziai.
3. Sigur se va ntmpla ceva care i va mpiedica s fac o astfel de greeal.
4. Mine cnd vei ajunge la mine la birou m voi uita pe eseul tu s vd dac ai vreo
greeal.
5. Vom ajunge la caban disear pe la ora 8.
6. Probabil c sptmna viitoare se vor gsi pantofi de dam cu numere mai mici.
7. Ce faci dup amiaz pe la ora 5? Voi cuta ilustraii pentru o carte de poveti pe care
o scrie mama.
8. Dac ai nevoie de mine, m gseti n sala de lectur. Am s citesc pn mai trziu.
9. n iulie vom merge n Elveia, iar n august vom face o excursie n Venezuela.
10. Mine voi fi foarte ocupat toat ziua voi face curenie n toat casa i voi spla.
11. Prim-ministrul urmeaz s se ntlneasc n aprilie cu reprezentai ai uniunii
europene.
12. La ce or s-i spun s vin? El promite c va procesa informaiile mine ntre 9 i 11.
13. S-i spun c trebuie s-i refac proiectul?
14. i vei aprecia foarte mult lucrarea cnd o vei citi.
Exercitiul 7. Explain the use of the Future Tense in the following excerpt:
These things were at first as delicate as if they had been ghostly, and he was sure
in a moment that, whatever he should find he had come for, it wouldnt be for an
impression that had previously failed him. That conviction held him from the outset, and,
seeming singularly to simplify, certified to him that the objects about would help him,
would really help them both. No, he might never see them again this was only too
probably the last time; and he should certainly see nothing in the least degree like them.

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He should soon be going to where such things were not, and it would be a small
mercy for memory, for fancy, to have, in that stress, a loaf on the shelf. He knew in
advance he should look back on the perception actually sharpest with him as on the view
of something old, old, old, the oldest thing he had ever personally touched; and he also
knew, even while he took his companion in as the feature among features, that memory
and fancy couldnt help being enlisted for her. She might intend what she would, but this
was beyond anything she could intend, with things from far back tyrannies of history,
facts of type, values, as the painters said, of expression all working for her and giving
her the supreme chance, the chance of the happy, the really luxurious few, the chance, on
a great occasion, to be natural and simple. She had never, with him, been more so; or if it
was the perfection of art it would never and that came to the same thing be proved
against her.
What was truly wonderful was her way of differing so from time to time without
detriment to her simplicity. Caprices, he was sure he felt, were before anything else bad
manners, and that judgment in her was by itself a thing making more for safety of
intercourse than anything that in his various own past intercourses he had had to reckon
on. If therefore her presence was now quite other than the one she had shown him the
night before, there was nothing of violence in the change it was all harmony and reason.
It gave him a mild deep person, whereas he had had on the occasion to which their
interview was a direct reference to a person committed to movement and surface and
abounding in them; but she was in either character more remarkable for nothing than for
her bridging of intervals, and this now fell in with what he understood he was to leave to
her. The only thing was that, if he was to leave it all to her, why exactly has she sent for
him? He had had, vaguely, in advance, his explanation, his view of the probability of her
wishing to set something right, to deal in some way with the fraud so lately practised on
his presumed credulity. Would she attempt to carry it further or would he blot it out?
Would she throw over it some more or less happy colour; or would she do nothing about
it at all?
(Henry James, The Ambassadors)
Exercise 8. Discuss on the ways of expressing futurity in the following excerpt:
- Ascult, ce avei de gnd s facei voi cu banii pe care i-ai motenit?
- Nu stiu, s vedem
- Dai-i ncoa s vi-i in eu.
Mi-era o sil imens, cci tiam c sub aparena teatral de franche se ascund
intenii precise
- Unchiule, eu m gndeam
- Ce te gndeai? Las c te-am vzut eu. N-ai spirit practic Ai s-i pierzi averea
(cel puin s rmn n familie, avea aerul s spun). ()
Cumnatu-meu rdea amuzat. I-am privit umerii largi.
- Unchiule, eu m gndeam s nu m ncurc n afaceri. Cred c averea pe care o
am mi ajunge s traiesc modest.
- Vorbeti prostii i-i sticleau ochii mari verzi nimeni n-are de ajuns, niciodat!
Ce tii tu? Cum crezi c se ine o femeie ca nevast-ta?
(C. Petrescu, Ultima noapte de dragoste, ntia noapte de rzboi)

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Exercise 9. Comment on the uses and meanings of Future in the following excerpt:
-Trebuie s plec, tefane, opti Ioana hotrt. Mergi cu mine, dar nu alturi,
mergi mai n urm i ine i tu capul n jos dac te ntlneti cu cineva. () Cnd
ajungem la rspntie la Bibina, rmi n urm i m lai S ajungi bine la Bucureti,
tefane, chiar dac din pricina asta o s m uii, continu ea i glasul i tremura vizibil, de
emoie sau poate de rcoarea dimineii. Poate nu m uii! S ajungi om mare, fiindc am
ghicit eu, de-aia nu vrei s m iai cu tine, fiindc vrei s ajungi mare. S ajungi! i urez,
na! Dar dac nu ajungi, ntoarce-te, tefane! Eu am s te atept
(M. Preda, Delirul)

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