Simple Future Tense

The tenses simply show the time of an action.

SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE 

Simple Future Tense is used to construct sentences about future time ( time after now ).

In other words, Future Tense  indicates the actions which will occur in the future. “will”, “shall”  and “be going to” are auxiliary verbs of Simple Future Tense.

( The use of shall as an auxiliary verb has been greatly reduced in recent times. We see it only in formal writings )

STRUCTURE 

POSITIVE FORM (+) :  Subject ( I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They ) + will + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

NEGATIVE FORM (-) :  Subject ( I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They ) + will not / won’t + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

QUESTION FORM (?) :  Will + Subject ( I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They ) + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

NEGATIVE QUESTION FORM (?) : Will not / Won’t + Subject ( I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They ) + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

SHORT ANSWER FORMS : ( + / – ) : YES / NO + Subject ( I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They )+ will / will not (won’t)

[table]

POSITIVE(+) | NEGATIVE(-)  | POSITIVE QUESTION (?) |NEGATIVE QUESTION (?)

I will come | I will not ( won’t ) come | Will I come | Will not / Won’t I come
You will come | You will not ( won’t ) come | Will you come | Will not / Won’t you come
He will come | He will not ( won’t ) come | Will he come | Will not / Won’t he come
She will come | She will not ( won’t ) come | Will she come | Will not / Won’t she come
It will come | It will not ( won’t ) come | Will it come | Will not / Won’t it come
We will come | We will not ( won’t ) come | Will we come | Will not / Won’t we come
You will come | You will not ( won’t ) come | Will you come | Will not / Won’t you come
They will come | They will not ( won’t ) come | Will they come | Will not / Won’t they come

[/table]

ATTENTION:

In Simple Future Tense, we do not add any suffixes like –s, ed, etc. at the end of the verbs. We use will/shall/be going to as an auxiliary verb with first forms of the verbs after the subjects. (For “will” and “shall” without separating the subjects as singular or plural – the rule applies to all subjects in the same way)

CONTRACTIONS:

For “WILL”;

will –> ‘ll    Ex: I‘ll come back.

will not –> won’t   Ex: I won’t study.

For “SHALL”

shall not –> shan’t  Ex: We shan’t make any agreement.

For “BE GOING TO”

be(am/is/are) going to –> ‘m/’s/’re going to  Ex: She‘s going to buy a car.

be(am/is/are) not goint to –> ‘m/’s/’re not going to or isn’t/aren’t   Ex: They‘re not going to get a card. / They aren’t going to get a card.

Common Tense Markers:

Next week, month, year, summer, etc. / Tomorrow / Soon / Shortly / In the future / Tonight

The day after tomorrow /  In 2 days / In a week, 2 weeks / In 5 years

Note:

We use other question words ( Like Who, What, Why , etc.) in present tense.

Question Words (who, what, why, etc.) + will+ subject ( he, she, it, I, you, we, they) + V₁  ( First Form of Verb )

FUTURE TENSE WITH “WILL”

USING OF SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE:

1. Simple Future Tense expresses future ( time after now ) actions. There is no planning. It is used when talking about the actions that will take place due to future conditions. (uncertain actions that will ocur or not and  voluntary actions)

2. It is used for the action that is decided at the moment of speech. ( Decisions taken at the moment of speaking )

3. It is used for the facts that are related to the future and we can not prevent them.

4. Future Tense is used for someone’s thoughts, hopes, predictions, assumptions, sureness, fears , about future events.

5. Future Tense is used while offering, promising, ordering, threating, asking for a request

6. It is used with conditional, time and purpose clauses .

Note:

Conditional clauses have two clauses which are main clause and if clause. We do not use “will” in if clause. We use “will” in main clause and simple present

tense in if clause.

Time Clauses have two clauses which are main clause and time clause. As above, we also do not use “will” in time clause which is the clause with time words ( when,

after, before, until, once, while, as soon as, by the time, till ).

FUTURE TENSE WITH “SHALL”

The use of shall as an auxiliary verb has been greatly reduced in recent times. We see it only in formal writings. However, we can use or see “shall” as stated below.

“Shall” is mainly used to make an offer and a suggestion or to ask for advice with subjects “I“ and “We”in questions.

FUTURE TENSE WITH “BE GOING TO”

For detailed expression about “Be Going To”

For Differences Between “Will” and “Be going to”

FORM  for “Be Going To”

POSITIVE FORM (+) :  Subject + BE ( am / is / are ) + going to + V1  ( First Form of Verb )

NEGATIVE FORM (-) : Subject + BE ( am / is / are ) + NOT + going to + V1  ( First Form of Verb)

QUESTION FORM (?) : BE ( am / is / are ) + Subject + going to + V1  ( First Form of Verb )

SHORT ANSWER FORMS ( + / – ) : YES / NO + Subject + be ( am / is / are ) OR be ( am / is / are ) going to + Not

USING “BE GOING TO”

1. It is used to make prediction, especially when we can see something is about to happen.

Note:

“Will” is also used to make prediction. However if there is an evidence, “be going to” is prefered instead of “will”.

2. It is used to indicate planned actions.

Note:

“Will” is used for unplanned actions in future.