Ways of expressing future in English

1.The present tense used as a future tense

Very often, we use a present tense in English to talk about future events: look at this short dialogue:

“Where are you going next summer?”

2.The future with "will" or "going to"

A “future” with will is used to imply a deliberate predetermined action .

A future form with will is also needed whenever it is necessary to avoid confusion between present and future (for example when there is no adverb of time present)

Will and going to ARE NOT USED...

a) With modal verbs can, could, must, should, would.

b) in time clauses after if, when, as soon as, unless, after, before, while etc.

3.The future with shall

Shall and the negative form shan't are not often used in modern English; more than just expressing a future action, they express a future obligation or certainty (or in the negative, a forbidding) , and are normally only used in the first person singular (with I), as in.

I shall certainly visit the British Museum when I'm next in London.

Present Continuous. Form

The Present Continuous Tense is formed with the present tense of the auxiliary verb be + the Present Participle (V-ing)

Affirmative	Interrogative	Negative
I am working	Am I working	I am not working
He	he	He
She is working	Is she working	She is not working
It	it	It
We You are working	we are you working	We You are not working
They	they	They

Present Continuous. Using

1.for actions happening now.

It is raining. Take your umbrella.

I'm waiting for my friend. She is having coffee.

2.for an action happening in the present time period but not necessary at the moment of speaking, (often with the words: these days, this week, today, this evening, this month, etc.)

Is Tom working this week? — No, he is on holiday.

3.for changes happening around us.

The population of the world is rising very fast. Your English is getting better.

4.for emotional colouring of actions (annoying habits, praise, blame, impatience, etc.) with the words: always, all the time, constantly.

You are always finding fault with me. She is constantly losing things.

5.for a definite arrangement in the near future, for a future intention or planned actions.

I'm meeting Sarah tonight. We are spending Christmas т Chicago.

We are leaving London next week.

One should remember that we don't usually use the following verbs in the Continuous Tenses:

likes and dislikes:	love, like, hate, care, prefer
wants and needs:	want, wish, desire, need, lack
senses:	see, hear, feel, notice, smell, taste,
	sound
knowledge:	know, understand, remember,
	forget, realize
opinion:	believe, recognize, seem, appear,
	think(that), seem
possession:	possess, contain, consist of, include, etc.
existence:	be, exist

But there are exceptional uses of these verbs (more frequent in spoken English), when we want to give special emphasis to their particular application to this very moment.

/ think it's too expensive. (=opinion) He is friendly, (appearance)

What are you thinking about? (at the moment) He is being friendly. (=behaving) or pretending now.

NOTE: We can use verbs that describe the way we feel physi­cally in a Simple Tense or Continuous.

I feel sick. I 'm feeling sick.

My legs hurt. My legs are hurting.

When we want to express intention, the form be going to is often used.

He is going to answer his friends' letters tonight.

Spelling Rules:

- if the infinitive ends in -e, drop it: make - making;

when a one-syllable verb has one vowel and ends in a con­sonant, double the consonant: sit - sitting;

_ if the verb ends in -ie, change it to y: die - dying, lie - lying;

_ if the infinitive ends in -y, add -ing without any changes: try -trying.

24. Present Continuous and Present Simple compared(сравнение)

Simple Present	Present Progressive/Continuous
repeated actions	actions happening at the moment of speaking or around the moment of speaking
fixed arrangements, scheduled events (e.g. timetable)	fixed plan in the near future
sequence of actions in the present (first - then, after that)	temporary actions
instructions	trends
things in general	repeated actions which are irritating to the speaker (with always, constantly, forever)
after special verbs

Signal words

Simple Present	Present Progressive/Continuous
always, often, usually, sometimes, seldom, never, every day, every week, every year, on Mondays	now, at the moment, Look!, Listen!

Form

Simple Present	Present Progressive/Continuous
infinitive 3rd person singular (he, she, it) infinitive + -s	to be (am, are, is) + infinitive + -ing

 

Spelling

Simple Present	Present Progressive/Continuous
watches(-es after sibilant)	sitting(double consonant after short vowel)
goes (-es after -o)	writing (leave out one -e at the end)
hurries (-y to -ie after consonant)	lying(change -ie to -y)

Past Continuous

The Past Continuous is formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb be + the Present Participle (V-ing)

I he she it + was+ Ving

We you they + were +Ving

The Past Continuous is used:

to express an activity happening at a particular time in (he past. (It may be used with a point of time: at 7 yesterday or with a verb in the simple past tense in the subordinate clause: when we came ...)

What were you doing at 9 last night? -1 was reading a book. When she got home, the children were sleeping and the dog was sitting in front of the door.

to describe an action, event or situation that was in progress at a specified time in the past

In May of last year I was studying hard for my final exam¹,.

for descriptions

Helen looked beautiful last night. She was wearing a lovclv velvet dress.

used without a time expression, it can indicate gradual development

It was getting dark and the wind was rising.

used with while the Past Continuous describes two actions that were in progress at the same time.

While he was driving along this morning, he was thinking

about his new job.

The Past Continuous may be used with the following adver-bials: all night, all morning, all day yesterday, the whole eve­ning-

I was watching TV all evening yesterday. The Past Continuous can express incompleteness when con­trasted with the Past Simple.

/ read a book yesterday (and finished it).

I was reading a book yesterday (but didn 't finish it).

Future Continuous

The Future Continuous is formed with the Future Indefi­nite of the auxiliary verb to be and Participle I (V-ing) of the notional verb. In the first person will is more usual than shall, except in the interrogative.

The Future Continuous is used:

1. to describe an action or event which will be going on at a definite moment in the future.

/'// be having breakfast at seven o'clock tomorrow. When you come, he will be sleeping.

The definite moment is indicated either by a point of time at 5 o'clock)or by another future action expressed by a verb in the present Indefinite (when you come, when he arrives).

2. to describe an activity or state that covers the whole of a future time period.

I'll be watching TV all evening.

3. to describe a future event which is a part of regular routine. /7/ be working at home tomorrow. Call me at any time you want.

Compare:

I am meeting him tomorrow, (with a definite time, and for the near future)

I'll be meeting him tomorrow/next year/some time, (or with­out a time expression at all for the near or distant future)

4. to express future without intention.

/'// be seeing him at the university. He never misses lec­tures.

5. Will you be V-ingl Is used to ask about somebody's plans, especially if you want something or want them to do some­thing.

- Will you be using your bicycle this evening? - No, I

won't.

-1 wonder if I could borrow it for the afternoon?

Compare: He won't cut the grass, (means he refuses to cut it) He won't be cutting the grass, (is a mere state­ment of fact, giving no information about his feel­ings) He isn't cutting the grass, (implies a planned action)

NOTES:

Will future: expresses intention, belief, hope, and willingness.

Future Continuous: indicates future activity or event but does not express intention or willingness.

Present Perfect Tense

The Present Perfect is formed by means of the auxiliary verb to havein the Present Indefinite and Participle IIof the notional verb.

In the interrogative form the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject: has he done / have you done?

In the negative form not is placed after the auxiliary verb: has not/ have not, hasn't / haven't done.

The Present Perfect is usedto show a connection in the speaker's mind between the past and the present. This occurs in three main ways:

1) the unfinished past:

- by referring to something that started in the past and is continuing now. The Present Perfect is used instead of the Pre­sent Perfect Continuous to denote more permanent states with for and since. The Present Perfect is also used with the verbs not admitting of the continuous form.

I've worked here since1985.

I've known him for 20 years.

NOTE: The Present Perfect is used instead of the Present Perfect Continuous in negative sentences with the preposi­tion/or.

She hasn 't written to me for years.

- or describing something that happened, when the period of time that we are referring to has not finished:

I've read two books this week.

I've seen him twice today.

2) the indefinite past: referring to the past with no definite . time. It is connected to the present in some way, and is often used in the following situation:

a) describing something that happened in the past, when the result can be seen in the present:

He's painted his house. She's bought a new car.

b) describing something that happened recently, often when giving "news":

Two men have escaped from a prison in London. The Prime Minister has arrived in Australia.

c) this tense is frequently used with the certain words: just, yet, already, never, lately, since, for, ever, recently, so far, before, etc.

NOTE: Yet is used in questions and negative sentences. He 's just gone out. He hasn't come yet. She's already left.

d) describing personal experience: I've been to Paris.

He's never been abroad.

e)describing personal experience with superlatives or ordinals:

She's the most intelligent person I've met. This is the third time we 've complained.

NOTE: The Past Indefinite is used with just now. He came just now.

3) The Present Prefect is used for situations that exist for a long time (especially if we say always) and this situation still exists now.

My father has always worked hard.

John has always lived in London.

The Present Perfect in this case is translated into Russian by the present or sometimes by the past imperfective. / have known him for many years. Я знаю его много лет. I have always been fond of music. Я всегда любил музыку.

4) The Present Perfect is also used in adverbial clauses of time introduced by conjunctions after, when, before, as soon as, till, until, etc. to show that the action of the subordinate clause will be accomplished before the action of the principal clause. The Present Perfect is used to express a future action.

/'// help you with your homework as soon as I have done my own.

Past Perfect

\Ve form the Past Perfect with had + the past participle(gone, opened, written, etc.)

The Past Perfect is used:

to express an action that happened before a certain moment in the past. The moment may be indicated by another past action expressed by a verb in the Past Indefinite or by adverbial phrases, such as by five o'clock, by Sunday, by the end of the year, by that time, etc. With these phrases the Past Perfect does not denote priority but only the completion of action.

/ arrived at midday to give Nick a lift but he had already

left to catch his train.

He did not want to go to the cinema because he had seen

the film on TV.

By three o'clock yesterday he had arranged everything for

the trip.

for the earlier of the two past events in time clauses with con­junctions when, till, until, as soon as, before, after if we need to make a time distinction between two past events.

As soon as (when, after) they had finished breakfast the

children went out to play.

He didn't leave the house until he had checked that all the

windows were closed.

After he had given the police his name and address, he was

allowed to go.

NOTE: The Past Indefinite can be used in the time clause if there is the idea that the second action is the result of the first, and that it happened immediately afterwards.

When I heard the postman I went down to see if there wcis

any mail.

I sat outside until ti.e sun went down.

The Past Perfect is frequently used (like the Present Perfect) with the adveibs never, already, just, yet, still, before, since, for.

When I last spoke to him he hadn 't yet had the result.

He wanted to visit London very much because he had never

been there before.

When he got there the meeting had just started.

The Past Perfect is used in reporting speech.

She said she had sent the telegram. I added that he had acted stupidly.

The Past Perfect is usually used with adverbs hardly (scarcely) ... when, no sooner ... than. Very often the inverted word-order is used with these adverbs for emphasis.

The train had hardly (scarcely) left the station when there

was an explosion.

Hardly had the train left the station when there was an

explosion.

I had scarcely entered the room when the telephone rang

Scarcely had I entered the room when the telephone rang.

No sooner had I reached the door than I realized it was

locked.

NOTE: hardly (scarcely) ... when is translated into Russian -едва ... как, No sooner... than - как только, не успел ... как.

Future Perfect

The Future Perfect Tense is formed will the auxiliary verbs will / shall + Perfect Infinitivefor the first person, will + Perfect Infinitivefor the other persons.

The Future Perfect is used:

1. to denote an action that will be completed before a definite time in the future. It is normally used with a time expression beginning with by: by that time, by then, by the end of next year, not... till, until, etc.

/'// have written the report by tonight.

I won't have retired till the year 2010.

Don't phone after 11.00 because I'll have gone to bed by

then.

2. instead of the Future Perfect Continuous with verbs not ad­mitting the Continuous form.

By the time you come back, he'll have been here for the t\>'o

hours.

NOTE: only the Future Perfect is used for a completed action in future when quantity is mentioned.

By the end of my university course I'll have attended 1.200

lectures.