🤐 Stop Saying... The future without 'will' - NOW WITH SUBTITLES

Stop Saying

from BBC Learning English dot com.

Hey, my name is Melissa and I come  from Equatorial Guinea.  

When I talk about the future, I always use 'will'.

Is that okay? Are there any other ways?

Yes. people do use 'will' a lot. It's grammatically simple to use, but there are situations where it  

can sound unnatural, and it's great to  sound as natural as possible, like me.  

So consider the use of 'will' in these  sentences:

I've not seen my girlfriend for ages, but I will see her tonight.

Whoop! I'd better go - my plane will leave at six.

Oh, look at the sky! It will rain.

Hmm. How can we make these sound more natural?

I've not seen my girlfriend for ages but I will see her tonight.

Here, we're talking about an arrangement that we've made with somebody

so we'd often use the present continuous.   

I'm meeting her tonight.

Or we can use 'to be going to', especially for plans.

but I'm going to meet her tonight.

I'd better hurry. My plane will leave at six.

This is what we call 'a timetabled event'.  

It's happening at a specific time, so we use the present simple like this:

I'd better hurry - my plane leaves at six.

Oh no - look at the sky! It will rain!

Now this time, we're making a prediction based on current

physical evidence, so we use 'to be going to' here.

It's going to rain.

So there we are: three times we can use another form instead of 'will'

and here's one where you can use 'will'.

What do you mean, you don't believe I've got a girlfriend! Well, if that's the case  

I'll show you a photo.

Ha!

Oh.

Thanks, Tim. I will try to use all those other ways.

Oh, I used 'will' - is that ok there?   

Of course - you're talking about something

that you want to do voluntarily. It's not  an arrangement, it's an intention, and with  

that I'll say goodbye - and that was 'will' for a decision made at the time of speaking.

Bye-bye!