Talking about the future - what your English teacher did not tell you!

Talking about the Future - What Your English Teacher Did Not Tell You!

The above question is very common in my Business English classes - even from Advanced learners. Choosing the correct form of the future is very challenging for English students. To understand why, we need to reassess how we think about the future and answer this question:

What is the Future Tense in English?

Take a moment to think about it.

Did you say ‘will’ or ‘going to’?

Many students do.

Your English teacher should have taught you that there is no future tense in English! Yes, that is correct - there is no future tense in English.

We have the present tense and the past tense but no future tense.

The key to understanding the future is to realise that, because we do not have a future tense, we have to find other ways to express the future.

Think about a filing cabinet as shown above. A filing cabinet will contain papers from different aspects of your business. You may have a drawer for customers and another one for suppliers. If you are looking for information about a customer you know which drawer you must go to.

Now think if these drawers contained English tenses. We only need one drawer for the present tense and one drawer for the past tense (containing regular and irregular verbs). However, we do not have a future tense drawer so what di we do? We need to choose a different way to express the future. Some of the options are:

• Present simple

• Present continuous

• To be going to (plus verb in base form)

• Will

In this week’s newsletter and next week’s newsletter we will look at when to choose these ways to talk about the future. Let’s start with the simplest.

Present Simple

This is the easiest way to express the future. We use the present simple to talk about scheduled or time-tabled events including public transport.

Present Continuous

We use the present continuous (‘to be’ plus the verb in ‘-ing’ form) to talk about a future arrangement.

‘Going to’ plus the verb in Base Form

We use ‘going to’ plus the verb in base form (the verb in base form is the infinitive without ‘to’) to talk about future intentions that have not yet been arranged.

Or

Please note that this question usually refers to leaving school at the end of the final year and not at the end of the day. To ask about the end of the day we would say ‘What are you going to do after school?’.

You can see how the reply may be in a different form to the question. The questioner does not know if her question is an intention or arrangement.

Please note that there is very little difference between using the present continuous and going to. For example:

It is not usually important to the listener whether this has been arranged or is an intention.

Will

Notice that we have not yet discussed ‘will’. There are only certain circumstances when we use ‘will’ to talk about the future. We will examine these in next week’s newsletter.

The Power of Experimentation

In his book ‘Feel Good Productivity’, Ali Abdaal details 54 experiments that the reader can try to boost their productivity.

I think that this idea of experimentation is very important. In a podcast with author Mark Manson (‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’), they both discuss the benefits of experimenting with life.

Mark Manson says that framing life as experimentation removes the stigma of failure. In other words it removes the mindset that you have to succeed at everything you try. The idea is that you reframe failure as data gathering. Experimentation will allow you to find what you are good at, what you are not good at, what you enjoy and what you don’t enjoy.

My Life Has Been a Series of Experiments

I have never been frightened to experiment in my life. That is why I think that I was able to:

• Work for a blue chip company (didn’t suit me)

• Start 2 businesses in 2 different countries (both successful)

• Move to a foreign country (successful)

• Build a house (more accurately have a house built) (successful)

• Try different investing strategies (some successful, some not successful)

• Starting this newsletter is an experiment

As you can see not all of my ‘experiments’ have been successful. However, I have learnt as much from the unsuccessful ventures as the successful ones.

Who should use this mindset the most?

In my opinion, young people - say teenagers and people in their twenties. This is the way you can discover yourself. Don’t worry if something doesn’t work out.

What can young people do?

• Start a side hustle or part-time business

• Start a new course

• Start something creative - a newsletter or YouTube channel

• Travel

• Live in a foreign country for 6 months

• Learn to code

Whatever you try make sure you learn something from the experience.

What is your next life experiment?

Word of the Day: Experiment

Experiment - noun - a test done in order to learn something or to discover if something works or is true

Experiment - verb - to try something in order to discover what it is like or find out more about it

Do you have any Business English Questions?

Please email me and I will do my best to answer them in future newsletters.

Until next Wednesday - have a great week!

Iain.

www.communicateenglish.com