Non-native speakers and learners of English usually associate the word will with the future, e.g. I will (I’ll) be there at 10 o’clock. / I will (I’ll) call you tomorrow. / I will not (I won’t) do that. However, as we have already seen when we discussed present and past tenses, English offers a much wider variety of options. We could even say that in most cases we should ‘kill will’ and choose another way of expressing the future. The good news is that those different ways include Present Simple and Present Continuous that we master at the very early stage of learning English, plus the going to future. Let’s take a look at the following examples:
- Are you going to Dubrovnik tomorrow morning?
Let’s recall the most important rules for expressing the future
| Tense | example | function |
|————————|————————————————————————-|———————————————–|
| Present Continuous | I am meeting our business partners in the afternoon. My boss is travelling to Paris tomorrow at 10. | arrangement; appointment; definite plan for near future |
| will + verb | She’s not in the office? OK, I’ll call later. I will (I’ll) do that instead of you. Don’t worry. I believe our profits will rise next year. | instant decision; promise; prediction |
| be going to + verb | I am going to change my job very soon. We’re going to buy a new house next year. You really have to hurry up! We’re going to be late for the meeting. | planned events and intentions, decided on before the moment of speaking; prediction based on present situation |
