Future Tenses: will do, going to do, be doing, will be doing | English Grammar | B1-Intermediate

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Hello and welcome everyone to this presentation  which is on Future tenses today. So, the reason  

for today's presentation is a question from  several people, and it is: 'Is there a difference  

in meaning between: a) I'm going to eat out this  evening, b) I'm eating out this evening, and  

c) I'll be eating out this evening. So, obviously,  the topic is the use of Future forms to talk about  

intentions and arrangements. So, that's the main  topic for today. Now, before we look at which  

forms we can use to talk about intentions and  arrangements for the future, I'd like to tell you  

which form not to use. I think that's an important  thing to start with. Do not use 'will do'. Do not  

use Future Simple to talk about intentions and  arrangements. So, a quick reminder when we use  

'will do' or the Future Simple for: Three things:  a possibility, a decision at the time of speaking,  

or a prediction with some degree of certainty.  For example, let's take the context that someone  

says to someone else: 'If I finish work early  today, I'll go to the cinema. It's a possibility:  

if. Okay, the other person can say: 'Well, why not  invite John to go with you?' Decision at the time  

of speaking: 'Good idea! I'll give him a call.',  and then the other person can predict with some  

degree of certainty: 'I'm pretty sure John will  say yes.' So, these are the three main things  

we use future simple for. We must not use the  Future Simple to speak about our intentions or  

our arrangements. Just one little thing that, if  your prediction for number 3, if your prediction  

has a high degree of certainty, it's better to use  'going to'. So, if the person is absolutely sure  

that John will accept, he should say: 'John is  definitely going to say yes.' So, having clarified  

the uses of will, let's see. So, what do we use,  which future forms do we use for intentions and  

arrangements? Starting with intentions, I think  you all know it's 'going to do'. So, let's bring  

the context back. So, let's say that you do finish  work early. Then for your intentions it will be:  

So, I've finished work early. I'm going to the  cinema tonight. Sorry! I'm going to go to the  

cinema tonight. I'm going to call John to see if  he wants to join me, and John doesn't have a car,  

so I'm going to offer to pick him up. These  are all your personal intentions: going to,  

going to, going to. Now, let's take the scenario  a bit further and say that you have called John  

and he has accepted your invitation. We have now  moved from intentions to arrangements between two  

people, between you and John. So, John has  said yes; therefore, John is coming to the  

cinema with me tonight. We're using the Present  Continuous form for a future arrangement and the  

other arrangement: I'm picking him up at 6.  Now, if you mention the time of a scheduled  

event within the arrangement, you need to use  the Present Simple form. So, don't say then:  

'The movie is starting at 7, but: 'The movie -  the scheduled event - starts at 7.' So, that's, I  

think, pretty clear. We have reviewed this several  times. Then comes the question: 'Well, what about  

'we'll be doing'? What do we use that for? Let's  look at the concept of the Future Continuous tense  

'we'll be doing'. The main idea of this tense is  an action in progress at a specified time in the  

future. It is parallel to Present Continuous:  action in progress now, and Past Continuous:  

action in progress at a time, at a specified time,  in the past. So. 'we'll be doing' is the same:  

action in progress at a specified time in the  future. Now, there can be three main reasons why  

this action will be happening, will be taking  place, at that time in the future. One reason:  

you have the intention to do it at that time.  Remember we had for intention 'going to':  

I am going to call John when I finish work today.  Okay, because it's your intention, it will be  

happening. You can say instead: 'I'll be calling  John when I finish work today.' The second reason,  

I think you can guess, is because you have  arranged to do this action at that time. So,  

our example for arrangement was: 'John and I are  going to the cinema tonight.' You can also say:  

'John and I will be going to the cinema tonight.'  Reason three is that this action is a habitual  

action at this particular time. For example,  if you can say: 'Oh, Terry will be finishing  

work early too as he does every Friday.' Terry  finishes work early every Friday. Today is Friday,  

so naturally he will be finishing work early today  too. Maybe I should invite him as well. Right, so  

these are the three reasons why we might be using  the Future Continuous tense because we know for  

one of these three reasons that this action will  be taking place at a certain time in the future.  

Now what happens obviously is when you use 'will  be doing' instead of 'going to' or 'be doing' (the  

intention and the arrangement tenses), you remove  the distinction between intention and arrangement.  

Now sometimes, it's clear from the context,  sometimes not, which one it is. For example,  

if you say: 'At this time tomorrow I'll be flying  to Cairo.', obviously it's an arrangement because  

you've booked a flight. Right? that's not just  your decision, your intention. But, if you say:  

'At 4 tomorrow, I'll be watching the final on  television.' Now, that can be an intention; it can  

be an arrangement. Maybe it's just your personal  plan or intention to do this; maybe you have  

arranged with a friend to watch the final. We have  lost the distinction, the clarity. So, if you want  

your listener to know which one it is, if you want  to distinguish between 'it is my intention' or 'it  

is an arrangement', then use the specific tenses  we've looked at. So, instead of 'I'll be flying to  

Cairo', which is just a fact, say: 'I'm flying to  Cairo tomorrow, and my flight leaves at 4 p.m.',  

and instead of 'I'll be watching the final on TV.'  you want to show it's your personal intention,  

use the 'going to' form: 'I'm going to watch the  final on TV tomorrow, and the match starts at 4  

p.m.' So that - let's look at the question  - brings us to the question that started  

this lesson: Is there a difference in meaning  between 'I'm going to eat out this evening.',  

'I am eating out this evening.', 'I'll be eating  out this evening.' You now know the answer:  

I would say yes and no. The end result is the  same: You will be eating out at that time which  

is this evening, but the context is different. If  you say a) I'm going to eat out, you're telling  

the other person about a personal intention.  If you use b) I'm eating out this evening,  

it indicates an arrangement with someone else,  and c) as we said is vague. It can be a), it can  

be b). But, it can also be because you always eat  out on Saturday evenings, so it's a very global,  

general, tense, the 'I will be doing', the Future  Continuous tense. So, we've answered the question,  

but as this is an English class, there are always  exceptions to be mentioned! Just two little ones;  

we'll finish with those. And, the first one is:  When we talk about official plans, when official  

plans are announced in the media, any of the four  tenses may be used because these distinctions are  

not - whether it's intention or arrangement - not  important. Therefore, you may hear or see ' The  

president will address / is going to address /  is addressing / will be addressing - any of the  

four works - the parliament later today.' So don't  take - the reason I'm mentioning this - don't take  

newspaper, like headlines, as the best examples  of how to use tenses or structures in your daily  

conversations because they are special. And the  next one, which is also important for you to know,  

is in presentations when you tell people what you  intend to cover in a presentation. Naturally, we  

start with 'going to' or 'will be doing' because  we are describing our intention, but usually then  

we switch to 'will do' just to keep our sentences  short because 'we'll be doing', 'going to do' are  

long forms. We then switch. For example, today  this would be my example: 'Today, I'm going to  

talk / I will be talking about future tenses.  We'll start by reviewing the uses of will, we'll  

then look at which tenses to use for intentions  and arrangements, and we'll finish by looking at  

some exceptions.' So, the first sentence is with  'going to' or 'will be doing' and then I switch to  

'will', 'will', and 'will', which is exactly  what I have just done. This brings us to the  

end of the presentation. I hope it has helped  you to understand a bit better the very subtle  

differences between these three forms that were  in the original question. I hope you've enjoyed  

this lesson. For more on this topic, click here.  Remember to also check out my complete online  

course, and don't forget to like and subscribe.  Thank you for watching and happy studies!