What does the future hold?

In English, there are two structures used for the future simple.

1. Will + 1st form

2. Going to + 1st form

Which one you use will depend on when the decision is made. While or before you make the decision for the future, use “will”, and after the decision has been made, use “going to”.

Let’s take this example: you are sitting on the computer, doing research on where to go on vacation. Would you say:

A.) “Maybe I will go to India this summer.”

B.) “Maybe I’m going to go to India this summer.”

The answer is B, because you haven’t made the decision yet. After you decide or buy your tickets, you can tell everybody, “I’m going to India this summer!”

The future simple has 4 main uses:

1. To describe a fact in the future:

“The world will look very different in 100 years.”

2. To describe an event that will take place in the future:

“After I finish this post, I will have some coffee.”

3. To describe sequences in the future:

“After I do my laundry, I will make lunch, and after that I’ll do some homework and call my mum.”

4.. To describe duration:

“I will be in the office until 20:00 this evening.”

Pro tip: “when” and “will” MUST be kept AWAY from each other. A very common mistake in English is to say:

“When I will finish my work I will go home.”

That’s too much “will”. We only need to use the word once in a sentence to let the listener know what tense we are in.

We hope this was helpful, and please check back for more tips on the future tense in English later in the week!