Here comes January (a bitter pill to swallow, do we have the same expression in Spanish?). Back to our daily routines, but this time it is the start of a new year, time for resolutions, time to think about the future. So let's begin revising the FUTURE TENSES (remember you can have a loot at all the tenses and their uses in my site):
Present Continuous
- Future arrangements as part of your agenda (We have already bought the flights for Dublin, so we are flying there from Malaga airport on 14th March)
Future Simple- Abstract future (One day the Man will travel to Mars and live there.)
- making general predictions or giving opinions about the future. (I hope I will win the lottery one day. I think she will visit us next summer).
- Decisions taken at this very moment. ('Someone is knocking at the door.' 'Don't move. I'll open the door). TO MAKE A POLITE OFFER. You can also use SHALL to make a polite offer ('Shall I open the door for you?')
- TO MAKE A POLITE REQUEST with WILL ('Will you open the door for me, please?). If you want to sound politer, you will use WOULD (Would you open the door for me, please? Would you be so kind...? Would you mind opening...?)
- TO MAKE A SUGGESTION with SHALL ('Shall we go to the cinema this evening?)
GOING TO Future- Predictions based on evidence. (Look at those clouds! I think it is going to rain this afternoon).
- Personal plans and intentions (They are going to spend their winter holidays in the Alps). When these plans and intentions are shared with other people, they become arrangements and then we use the present continuous.
- Actions that will be in progress at a certain time in the future. (Tomorrow morning at this time I will be lying on the beach next to my girlfriend).
- Formal arrangements, especially used by tour guides (On Wednesday we will be flying to Copenhagen and then we will be visiting the Lofoten Islands at the weekend).
- Actions or events that will be completed by a specific time in the future, often used with the time expression BY THE TIME (para cuando). (I will have written the composition by the time you arrive home).
- It is similar to the GOING TO future, but it mainly has a time meaning >> La película estaba a punto de empezar (The film was about to start when the TV set broke down).
- It has a similar meaning of EXTERNAL OBLIGATION to the modal verb HAVE TO in some cases and in others it has got a time meaning (You are to watch That's English every morning).
So tell me about your plans, arrangements, resolutions, hopes...
And now what do you think about this issue: Will Obama ever pass a US gun law (News report) in the United States?