What are the errors in this statement?

Question

When we talk about the future, we always use "will" and the present tense of the verb

Answer 1

Hi George,

Two more points - admittedly a bit obscure!

There's a useful if dying distinction between "I will go" (fact) and "I shall go" (intention). You can still see it at work in the distinction between "Will we go?" (= something like "Do you think it will happen one day?") and "Shall we go?" (= something like "Come on, let's go then - yes?").

As a literary device, we can use the simple present to a similar effect. Famously, James Joyce ends A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with "I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." This doesn't mean "I go regularly ..." or "See? I am in motion out the door right now as I speak." It means "I hereby announce my firm intention that I will shortly be doing this."

All the best,

Richard

Answer 2

I agree with Fred that the error is that we do not always use "will" to speak about the future.

The "will future" is distinct in that it describes recent decisions or promises, such as: "I decided I will go to the party tomorrow." The will future also is used for decisions in real-time, such as: "I will buy your coffee!" Will also is used for events over which we do not have any influence, such as: "It will rain tomorrow."

This is opposed to the future progressive, or the "going to" future, which, as Fred said, is used for plans and predictions. Generally with this future tense, an additional element talking about a future time is used, such as "at 8:00" or "next week" or "tomorrow". The future progressive is built with the correctly conjugated form of "to be" and the verb in the progressive (-ing) form: "We are driving to the Grand Canyon in June."

Fred also mentioned the present simple used to express the future, which is done when something definitive is happening, such as his example that the "Movie begins at 7:00pm." This future tense is based on a timetables, schedule, calendars, etc.

Answer 3

I would say the error is that we don't always use "will." When we talk about an event that is scheduled in the future, for instance, we could say "The movie will begin at 7:00 PM." But we don't have to use "will" for scheduled events. We can also say "The movie begins at 7:00 PM, just using the simple present verb "begins." If we have a planned event or a prediction, we can use "going to" instead of "will." Examples are: We're going to work for a bank this summer. I am going to take four classes for my major next semester.

Hope that helps.

Fred