B2Future

Future forms

Choose future forms according to viewpoint: decision, prior intention, arrangement, timetable, activity in progress, completion or duration up to a future point.

Overview

What this grammar does

Choose future forms according to viewpoint: decision, prior intention, arrangement, timetable, activity in progress, completion or duration up to a future point.

Form and rules

How it works

Will often expresses spontaneous decisions, promises and opinion-based predictions; going to expresses prior intention or evidence-based prediction.

Present continuous is common for arranged personal events, while present simple is common for timetables and fixed schedules.

Future continuous presents an activity as in progress or as part of an expected future routine.

Future perfect presents completion before a future reference point; future perfect continuous emphasizes duration up to that point.

Several future forms may be grammatically possible in one situation, but each frames the event differently, so choose according to meaning rather than a time word alone.

A closer look

Meaning and use

Future perfect presents completion before a future reference point; future perfect continuous emphasizes duration up to that point.

Several future forms may be grammatically possible in one situation, but each frames the event differently, so choose according to meaning rather than a time word alone.

Examples

See the pattern in complete sentences

I'll deal with that email now.

We're going to expand the office next year.

I'm meeting the architect on Thursday.

The train leaves at 6:15.

By June, we'll have been working on the project for a year.

Common mistakes

What to avoid

The conference program says the keynote is going to start at 9:00.

The conference program says the keynote starts at 9:00.

A published timetable or fixed schedule commonly uses the present simple.

We've already arranged it: we will meet the supplier on Friday.

We've already arranged it: we are meeting the supplier on Friday.

A fixed arrangement involving a future time and another person naturally uses the present continuous.

Ready to practise?

The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.

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