Future Tense

Examples of the future tense

Here are some examples of the future tense in context:

Each of these examples tells us about an event, action, or state that is expected to happen in the future but hasn't yet taken place.

Uses of the future tense

We know that the future tense is used to talk about future events, but let's be more specific about what exactly we can use the future tense to say:

• Predictions - e.g. 'I think it'll snow tomorrow!'

• Immediate or spontaneous actions/events - e.g. 'we'll pay!' or 'I'll get the door'

• Plans and arrangements - e.g. 'I'll meet you outside at 3'

• Invitations - e.g. 'Will you marry me?'

• Expressing (un)willingness - e.g. 'I'll give you a lift' or 'he won't leave!'

• Looking forward to a future event - e.g. 'This time next year I will have finished school'

Fig 1. The future tense can be used to give invitations

Forming the future tense

Believe it or not, some linguists argue that the English language does not have a future tense. So why on earth are we learning about it?

Well, linguists don't mean we can't talk about the future in English, they just mean that English does not have special inflections to form the future tense like we do in the past and present tenses.

Instead of using inflections, we can form the future tense using the modal auxiliary verb 'will' along with the verb root, e.g. ‘I will call you tomorrow’.

We can also form the future tense using the word construction 'going to', e.g. 'I'm going to the cinema tonight' (We will cover this in more detail later).

Types of future tense

Each of the three main tenses (past, present, and future) is divided into four aspects. Aspect shows us the time-related characteristics of a sentence, indicating whether an action/state is ongoing, completed, or repeated.

The four aspects are: simple, continuous (progressive), perfect, and perfect continuous (or perfect progressive).

Let's look at how we can combine the future tense verb 'will' with aspects to talk about the future in different ways.

Future simple tense

The future simple tense is used to refer to an action, event, or state that begins and ends in the future.

It does not state whether this action will be completed or ongoing, but simply states the fact that an action will be or is expected to be carried out.

You can form the future simple tense by using this formula:

Subject + will + verb root (i.e. the infinitive without the word 'to')

The future simple tense is mostly used for spontaneous/immediate decisions or predictions. Take a look at these examples:

Other ways to form the future simple tense include the following:

Future continuous (progressive) tense

The future continuous tense is used to describe an ongoing action or state in the future. It shows that something is expected to continue for a certain period of time and that the action/event is unfinished.

You can form the future continuous tense by using this formula:

Subject + will + be + present participle (root verb + -ing)

Let's look at some examples:

Other ways to form the future progressive tense include the following:

Fig 2. Will we be seeing monkeys? I hope so!

Future perfect tense

The future perfect tense is used to talk about an action/event that will be completed between now and a certain time in the future, or before another action/event takes place.

You can form the future perfect tense by using this formula:

Subject + will have + past participle

Let's look at some examples:

Other ways to form the future perfect tense include the following:

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

The future perfect continuous tense looks forward to an action/event that will happen in the future. Like the future continuous tense, we only use this verb tense with action verbs.

You can form the future continuous perfect tense by using this formula:

Subject + will have + been + present participle (root form + -ing)

Let's look at some examples:

In each example, we are projecting ourselves into the future and looking back to an unfinished, continuous action or event.

Other ways to form the future perfect progressive tense include the following:

Other ways to talk about the future

Using the modal auxiliary verb 'will' isn't the only way in which we can talk about the future. We can also talk about actions/events that haven't yet happened using a combination of other tenses and aspects.

As discussed, there are no inflections in the English language that mark verbs as being the future tense. We can therefore refer to the future using other constructions.

Take a look at the following examples:

Using the present continuous (progressive) tense

The present continuous tense is often used to express an event that is already planned for the future.

We can use the following formula:

Subject + [am/are/is] + present participle (root form + -ing) + timestampTake a look at the following examples:

The sentences are in the present progressive tense however the timestamp (e.g. 'Friday') lets us know that the event is planned for the future.

Using the 'going to' + infinitive to talk about the future

We can also refer to the future using the construction 'going to' e.g. 'I'm going to play hockey later'. This is not considered a tense, but rather a construction that we can use to talk about the future.

We use the following formula when using 'going to':

Subject + [am / are / is] + going to + base form of the verb

We commonly use the construction 'going to' when talking about predictions (i.e. what we think is going to happen) or intentions (i.e. we've decided to do something).

Take a look at the following examples:

Using the present simple tense

We can also use the simple present tense to talk about future events that have been scheduled. This is often scheduled meetings, flights, timetables, etc.

In these sentences, the simple present tense is used to express scheduled events that are happening in the near future.