Learn English Tenses: 4 ways to talk about the FUTURE
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Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's lesson, I'm going to teach you the four futures. Okay?
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A lot of you know two futures, I think. A lot of you probably know "will" and "going to".
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I'm going to teach you two more futures today, and teach you how they're different
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from one another. Okay?
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So let's get started with the present continuous future. So the present continuous is when
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you have "be" verb, so "I am", "you are", "he is", "she is", "they are", I don't know
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if I said "we are", "we are" plus the verb and "ing". Okay? So we have "am", the verb,
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"ing". This is known as the present continuous. It's usually one of the first things you will
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learn when you're learning English. So a lot of you know the present continuous, and you
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think: "Oh, present continuous, it's taking place now." You're right, but we can also
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use it to talk about the future. We use the present continuous to talk about future that
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is going to happen very, very soon.
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So, for example, if you ask me: "Emma, what are you doing this weekend?" Well:
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"I'm hanging out with my friend, Josh, this weekend." Okay?
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Or I might say: "I'm shopping this weekend.",
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"I'm studying this weekend." If you ask me: "What are you doing tonight?" Well, you know,
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I want to be a good student, so: -"I'm studying tonight. I'm studying tonight."
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-"What are you doing next week?" -"Well, next week...
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I'm working next week." Okay? So present continuous
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is very, very common for when we're talking about the future that's going to happen soon.
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Not future that's going to happen 2,000 years from now or 50 years from now - no, no, that's
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far future. We're talking about the future that's going to happen in the next couple
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of days. Okay? So very, very soon future.
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We can also use the simple present to talk about the future. So, the simple present is
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when you take a verb and, you know, it's in the basic form, usually you add an "s". If
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it's third-person singular, for example: "I leave", "you leave", "he leaves", "she leaves",
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"they leave", "we leave". So this is all simple present. In your classes, you probably learned
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we use the simple present when we talk about routine. We can also use the simple present
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when we're talking about routines in the future. Okay? So, for example... And by this I mean
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timetables. We use this when we're talking about a schedule event; something that is
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scheduled to happen in the future. So, this usually has to do with when we're talking
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about transportation; trains, airplanes, we can use this tense. We can use it when we're
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talking about TV shows. We can use it when we're talking about restaurants opening and
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closing, or stores, when they open and close. So we use this when we're thinking about a
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schedule or a timetable.
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So here are some examples: "The last train leaves at 6pm today."
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So 6pm hasn't happened yet. It's in the future,
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but because this is a schedule event, it's a timetable event,
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it's a schedule, we can use the simple present. Here's another example:
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"The restaurant opens at 5pm today."
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So this hasn't happened yet. Right now, it is 2pm. This is going to happen
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in the future. But still, I use the simple present because this is a schedule. Okay?
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Every day the restaurant opens at 5pm.
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Here's a third example, I like watching TV, imagine
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I like The Big Bang Theory: "My TV show, The Big Bang Theory, starts at 4pm." So again,
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it's a routine, it's a schedule that takes place in the future, but it's still a schedule
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so we can use the simple present here. All right, so these two, even though they're present
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tenses, they can be used for the future.
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Now let's look at the two verbs we commonly use for the future or we commonly think of
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as future verbs. "Be going to" + a verb and "will". So, "be going to" + verb:
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"I'm going to study.", "I'm going to sleep.",
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"You are going to watch a video." Okay? These are examples
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of the "be going to" + verb future.
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So we use this when we're talking about the near future.
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Similar to this... So it's not a future that's very, very far away; it's soon, but
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it's a future where we think something is going to happen, and we have evidence that
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something is going to happen.
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So, for example: "I'm going to study English next month in Canada."
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This means you probably have your ticket already bought, you're pretty sure about this.
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There's not a lot of confusion.
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This is almost going to happen almost certainly. So you're pretty sure about this.
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"I'm going to study English next month."
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Another example, imagine I watch the weather station. Okay?
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And the meteorologist has predicted the weather, but it's a very good prediction because we
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see these clouds in the sky, there's a lot of evidence it's going to rain. Because there's
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evidence, we could use this tense and we could say:
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"It's going to rain all week."
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So this is based... It's in the near future, but it's based on some sort of evidence. This is likely
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to happen, and we're pretty sure it's going to happen. We have some evidence that makes
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us think it's going to happen.
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So this is a bit different from "will", which is one of the maybe easier futures to think
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about. We use "will" + a verb.
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For example: "I will always love you.",
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"I will study hard.",
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"I will do my taxes on time."
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Okay? So we use "will" + a verb when we're talking, first
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of all, in the far future. So this is all soon. This is very soon; whereas this, is
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very far. So for example:
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"In 50 years, everyone will speak Chinese."
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We use this also when we're not so sure about something.
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This is my prediction, but I don't have much evidence
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of this. I'm not very, very sure, so I will use "will" because I'm not sure; whereas if
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I'm very sure, there's a lot of evidence, I know it's going to happen, I do "be going to".
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So this one, there's not a lot of evidence, and it's a prediction we don't have evidence for.
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Another example: "Aliens will invade Earth." Okay? In 25 years, aliens are coming,
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they will invade the Earth. I don't mean to scare you. Luckily, I'm using "will", which
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means I'm not really sure. If I said to you: "This week, aliens are invading the Earth",
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you'd be very scared. If I said: "Aliens are going to invade the Earth. I know this. I
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have secret government documents." I'd be using this, and you'd be scared, too. But
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with "will", it's "will" so you don't have to be scared. It might not happen.
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We also use "will" when we're making promises. Okay? So if somebody ever gets down on their
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knee, and says:
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-"Emma, will you marry me?"
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-"I will marry you."
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It means I'm promising to marry you.
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Okay? Or maybe I don't really like the person, I might say:
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"I won't marry you."
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"Won't" is the negative form of "will". So I promise not to marry you.
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I don't know in your culture, but in Canadian culture and many Western cultures, for New
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Years, we always make these resolutions. We think: "Oh..." When it's New Years, when it's
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January 1st, we make some sort of promise to our self that we're never going to do something
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again, or we're going to start doing something. We normally use "will" for these. So, for
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example, maybe you have had too many beers, and you're thinking:
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"I don't want to ever drink again",
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you might make a promise to yourself:
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"I won't drink again. I will never drink again."
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Okay? Or maybe you want to stop smoking:
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"I will never smoke again. I will never do this again."
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Okay? Maybe your parents are angry at you because, you know, you did
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really bad on a test:
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"I promise I will work harder, I will study harder."
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So these are promises. We use "will" for promise.
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Finally, we also use "will" for volunteering. Okay? When we want to volunteer for something,
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we want to offer our help. We want to help someone, we can use "will". So, for example:
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-"Emma, can you clean the dishes?" -"I'll do it."
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-"Emma, can you vacuum the floor?"
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-"Sure. I'll vacuum.",
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"I'll get the telephone.",
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"I'll help you with your homework.",
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"I'll help you learn English."
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I'm volunteering, and so I use "I will". Okay?
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So just to recap, just to quickly go over everything:
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there are four futures I'm teaching you today.
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Present continuous can be used as the future if it's very soon.
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Simple present can be used for the future if it's a routine or schedule,
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something that's like... If you
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look at a schedule in the future, we can use the simple present.
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We can use "be going to"
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if we're talking about the near future and some kind of plan that... Or prediction we
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have evidence for. We are pretty certain it's going to happen. And then we can use "will"
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and a verb for the far future for a promise or when we want to volunteer for something.
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Okay?
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So, there you have it, four futures.
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I invite you to come visit our website at www.engvid.com.
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There, you can actually practice these on our quiz.
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I hope you will do it soon.
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I hope, actually... I hope you're doing it today or tomorrow.
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Okay? So until next time, take care.
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I wish you the best of luck.
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And good day, sir.
