Summary: This post is about how to talk about future in English. To your surprise, ‘will’ is not always a good choice as it is only one of the ways native speakers (if you like, Westerners) use to refer to future. The post starts with words of pop songs (lyrics) and moves on to talk about ‘three other‘ futures, focusing on planned future in special.
In lot of American pop songs, you will find things like:
I’m gonna + miss you
I’m gonna + run to you
I’m gonna + dance
But is there any difference between:
I’ m gonna + miss you (‘m gonna = am going to)
I will + miss you
Of course, they are not the same! Before you get the answer, there is one question for you.
What is it?
Do you know that ‘will’ is not the only choice for talking about future? Am I kidding? No, absolutely not. In English, there are more than one ways to talk about future. Thus, you don’t have to use ‘will’ all the time for future.
There are, in fact, mainly four different ways. Which four? Read the four sentences first.
A. Four Ways to Talk about Future
Future (1)
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will finish (’ll finish)
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will + verb
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So-called ‘Future’ Tense
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Future (2)
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is going to (’s going to)
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is/am/are + going to
+verb
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Present Continuous Tense
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Future (3)
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is renting (’s renting)
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is/am/are + verb + ing
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Present Continuous Tense
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Future (4)
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ends
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verb
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Present simple Tense
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A PLAN |
Future (1): Planned Future
But is there any difference between ‘is meeting’and ‘is going to meet’? Actually, they are very similar that they all refer to a future that is planned in advance.
Less powerful
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I will change the world. |
More powerful
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I am going to change the world.
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