EXPLANATION OF FUTURE TENSES

Present Continuous/Going To/Will

These are the three tenses that are used to talk about :

arrangements: I'm meeting a client tomorrow at 10. (PRESENT CONTINUOUS)

plans: We are going to buy a new car. (BE GOING TO + VERB)

predictions: 

An arrangement can be defined as something that has already involved someone else, e.g. when you booked your hotel room, made an appointment with the dentist, or made a date with someone. “Bookings/ reservations”, “dates”, “appointments” and “meetings” . Examples of Present Continuous for Arrangements include “I’m sorry, I’m meeting a client at that time. Can we make it later?” and “I’m watching that movie with my girlfriend tonight, so don’t tell me what happens”.

A plan, by contrast, is something that you have decided, e.g. a New Year’s resolution, an ambition, a goal, or something on a to-do list. Examples include “I’m going to give up smoking this year” and “I’m just going to chill this weekend”. Because it is used for plans, “I’m going to” often means exactly the same as “I’m planning to” and is the most common tense to answer “What are your plans for…?” questions with.

A prediction is your picture or imagination of something that you cannot change. This means that predictions are often about things apart from yourself, such as society, other people, and trends. It is also possible to make predictions about yourself, e.g. “I’ll lose all my hair by the time I’m 50” (obviously neither an arrangement nor a plan!)

 Another more general explanation of the differences between arrangements, plans and predictions is that an arrangement is usually in my diary, a plan is in my head, and a prediction is out there in the world.

Perhaps the biggest exception to the rule is that “I’m going to go” is often simplified to “I’m going”, mainly because of how clumsy the former sounds. This means that with the verb “to go” we have problems knowing whether “I’m going to Hawaii” is an arrangement or a plan. This seldom makes much difference, and is only an issue with the verb “to go”.

Will And Going To For Predictions

The most common explanation for the difference between “It will rain” and “It’s going to rain” is that “going to” is used when you have present evidence such as a visual clue, e.g. a black cloud. By contrast, “It will rain” might be because it always does this time of year or that is happens every time I try to have a barbecue.

 The verbs form that you choose depends on how you think about that future event, as explained above.

Future Continuous

The future continuous (will + be + verb with ing) has two uses. One is to talk about something in progress at a future point in time, e.g. “Don’t phone me at 6 in the morning again, because I’ll be sleeping”. The other is to emphasize the certainty of something, e.g. “In no time at all, we’ll all be buying 3D TVs” (as against the less confident-sounding “In no time at all, we’ll all buy 3D TVs”).

Future Perfect (will +have+verb past participle)

The future perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and use. The future perfect tense talks about an action that will be over by a certain time in the future.
The structure of the future perfect tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb WILL	+	auxiliary verb HAVE	+	main verb
		invariable		invariable		past participle
		will		have		V3

Look at these example sentences in the future perfect tense:

	subject	auxiliary verb		auxiliary verb	main verb
+	I	will		have	finished	by 10am.
+	You	will		have	forgotten	me by then.
-	She	will	not	have	gone	to school.
-	We	will	not	have	left.
?	Will	you		have	arrived?
?	Will	they		have	received	it?

In speaking with the future perfect tense, we often contract the subject and will. Sometimes, we contract the subject, will and have all together:

I will have	I'll have	I'll've
you will have	you'll have	you'll've
he will have she will have it will have	he'll have she'll have it'll have	he'll've she'll've it'll've
we will have	we'll have	we'll've
they will have	they'll have	they'll've

 Examples:

• The train will leave the station at 9am. You will arrive at the station at 9.15am. When you arrive, the train will have left.

The train will have left when you arrive.
past	present	future
		Train leaves in future at 9am.
9 9.15
		You arrive in future at 9.15am.

Look at some more examples:

• You can call me at work at 8am. I will have arrived at the office by 8.
• They will be tired when they arrive. They will not have slept for a long time.
• "Mary won't be at home when you arrive."
  "Really? Where will she have gone?"
• By the end of the month I will have sold 30 boxes of chocolate.