[kmurphy]

Hi all,


I need to make a chart comparing the future and future progressive tenses for my students. I need help figuring out what is the most essential information that I need on it. Basically, I want to provide them examples of when to use them including examples where it is possible to use both and also when not to use them. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[susan53]

I'm presuming that by this you mean will + simple infinitive and will + progressive infinitive.

You need to look first of all at the meaning of will - which may be prediction or volition but is not necessarily future : this post explains it.

With these infinitives the action may be either present or future - but that's determined by the context and, if signalled linguistically at all, it's done by a time adverbial (at the moment / tomorrow etc). "Will" itself is always present - it has the meaning I predict or I intend to - in other words it expresses present prediction/volition regarding another event which may be present, future or (with the perfect infinitive) past.

Then think about the simple and progressive infinitives : the simple infinitive expresses an action as "complete" while the progressive infinitive sees it as ongoing.

So : you have four possible combinations

Prediction + on-going event :
John's on holiday at the moment, lucky thing. He'll be lying on the beach at the moment while we're stuck here at work. (present = I predict he is lying...)
At this time tomorrow, we'll be flying home.


Prediction + "complete" event :
(Knock on the door) Oh, that will be John. (present = I predict that is John)
I expect we'll arrive about 7.

Volition + on-going event :
Right, I'll be going then. (= I intend to go now)
This one is, I think relatively rare in comparison with the others, and is always an alternative to the simple (Right then, I'll go now) but that's just a hunch which may be wrong. Can anyone think of an example where the progressive would be essential? I also can't think of any examples where it would be used to express volition regarding a future event. I usually present it as an option, used when the speaker really wants to stress the "on-goingness" of the action.

Volition + "complete" event : Is everyone here? OK, I'll start now. (= I intend to start now)
I'll call you when David arrives.

[kmurphy]

Thank you very much for your response. It really helped me.

Cheers k