Using the Present Simple to Talk about the Future (And a Bonus Idiom)

Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com. And, in this English lesson, we're going to have a look

at using the present simple when talking about the future. And, also, an idiom that I used.

So, the video that I'm going to show you now was recorded in Charlotte airport, and I made

this while I was waiting for our flight. So, let's have a look at that video now...

"Hello, this is Jack from To Fluency. We fly in about an hour and a half, so at the moment

we're just killing time. Speak to you soon!"

So, in the video I said, "...we fly in about an hour and a half, so at the moment we're

just killing time."

Now, what you can see here is that I used the present simple - we fly - to talk about a

future event - We fly in about an hour and a half.

So, we can use the present simple to talk about the future when an event is on a schedule

or at a fixed time. So, the flight we were taking was at a fixed time; it was on a flight

schedule, therefore, I can talk about this using the present simple.

So, let's have a look at more examples of you can use this.

"Hurry! The movie starts in 10 minutes!"

"The sale ends tomorrow."

"We leave at 6 A.M." Now, in this case, I'm talking about taking the train tomorrow morning

- we leave at 6 A.M. But if you look at the next example...

"We're leaving at 6 A.M." Now, this is when you're talking about it... when you're going

in the car, because, when you drive your car, it's not on a schedule, whereas the train,

which is public transport, is on a schedule.

So, you can see the difference (that we can use) here. Now, it's worth noting as well,

in the first three examples, we can use the present continuous, just like the last example.

But if it is on a schedule, it's more common to use the present simple.

Now, in the video, I also used an idiom here.... and let's have a look at the example again..

"...we fly in about an hour and a half, so at the moment we're just killing time."

So, the idiom that we're using is "to kill time" and this means to do something while

waiting for something else. So, in the airport, I was making videos, playing with my son,

going on my smartphone to kill time. Because we were waiting for something to happen.

And, for example, most people, these days, kill time on their phones.

Now, what I want you to do now is this: write a sentence using the present simple to talk

about the future. So, use an example that is relevant to you and your life.

And, if you like this video, then please share it. Thank you for watching and I will see

you next time.