7 English Phrases to Help You Predict the Future (Everyday English)

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- Hello this is Jack from tofluency.com.

Welcome to this lesson where I'm going to give you

some phrases that will help you talk about the future,

or more specifically, thinking about the future

and predicting what is going to happen.

So, we're going to talk about things like self-driving cars.

And also, the phrases that you can use in order to express

yourself and give your own opinions about what you

think is going to, or what you think will happen

in the future.

And, I'm taking these phrases from a conversation my wife

and I had, where we talked about our thoughts on what we

think is going to happen in the future

and just for us to make some predictions.

So that is the first point, is that we use will

or going to, to talk about future predictions.

By 2050, I think there will be or by 2050,

I think there are going to be.

So we can use both forms here.

And that's the first one I want to share with you.

I think we'll be able to.

I think we'll be able to.

So you can see here, we're using be able to.

And I want to give you an example using a similar phrase

in the present tense, and then also one in the future.

So at the moment, we can't fly.

Or, we don't have anything so that we can fly.

In the future, I think we'll be able to fly.

Now, I'm not sure if I actually think this,

but it's just an example.

So we can use can in the present.

But then, we need to use something else for the future

when we use these modal verbs.

So will be able to.

I think we'll be able to.

So quick question, do you think we will be able

to fly by 2060?

And what I mean by this is, as individuals we'll be able

to wear something and this'll be a normal mode of transport.

This next one has two key things about it.

Having children makes you think more about the future.

Having children makes you think more about the future.

The first part, having children is showing that we can use

this gerund phrase as a subject or as the subject.

Having children.

We're using it as the subject.

So having children makes you think more.

Makes you think.

We're gettin' into verb patterns here.

Verb patterns.

And make has quite a unique pattern.

It can also be used similarly with let.

So make you think.

We don't say, "Make you to think," or, "Make you thinking,"

but simply, "Makes you think."

A very common phrase here is when somebody says

you make me laugh.

You really make me laugh.

Or, you're making me angry.

You are making me angry.

Th next one is a good example of what you might hear

in an interview.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

So it's asking what you think you're going to be doing

in 10 years.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

And again, this is a very common question, or at least it

used to be, a common question in a job interview.

And usually they'll ask you where do you see yourself

in 5 years?

And I'm not sure about the best way to answer this question,

but maybe you can talk about how it relates to the company

that you are applying for.

Now again, we used all these phrases in the conversation

that we had, so definitely go check that out after

you've watched this lesson.

The next one, self-driving cars are inevitable.

Self-driving cars are inevitable.

So a self-driving car is becoming a lot more popular

and people think that this is actually going to happen now.

And this is where the car drives itself,

so it doesn't need a driver.

Instead, it uses technology and GPS so that it can navigate

through the streets and cities.

And I said this because I think it is going to happen.

And I based part of this off an article

that Seth Godin wrote.

And I recommend that you read this article.

It's titled the self-driving reset of just about

everything in our cities.

And it just talks about how self-driving cars are going

to change our cities in general.

It's going to have a huge impact on cities.

And he talks about how there aren't going to be any traffic

lights, pedestrians are safer,

there won't be any parking issues.

I'll link to the article in the description,

and I recommend that you subscribe to his blog

because he writes in very simple english

which is very effective at the same time.

Now after we spoke about self-driving cars,

I said to Kate, "It's going to be cheaper."

And she said, "How's it gonna be cheaper?"

How's it gonna be cheaper?

So, she is using going to but with the relaxed

pronunciation of gonna.

Gonna.

Which is very common.

Gonna, wanna, shoulda,

oughtta, dont'cha.

In fact I have a full lesson on this inside

the To Fluency program.

So, check that out in the description below.

But, how's it gonna be cheaper?

You're gonna hear this a lot in spoken english,

words like gonna, gonna, wanna, oughtta, shoulda,

coulda, woulda.

So it's a good idea to learn these,

especially if you're going to be speaking to people who use

this type of english, which is so common

in everyday english now.

So you're going to hear this on TV shows and in movies.

It depends on you if you want to use these

kind of contractions and this relaxed way of speaking.

But definitely learn this.

Practice how to say it so that you can more easily

understand when people use these types of words.

Flying cars seem a long way off.

Flying cars seem a long way off.

So this just means that, in my opinion,

or Kate's opinion, I can't remember who said this,

but that flying cars

aren't going to happen anytime soon.

It seems like this is going to be in the far distant future.

And I think a lot of people who made predictions years ago,

in the last century, in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's,

a lot of predictions said that we're going to see

flying cars in cities.

But it still seems like that's not going to happen

in the near future, unless I'm wrong.

Do you have any evidence for this?

Have you seen any prototypes or flying cars anywhere?

Please let me know in the comments below.

But I think this is quite true.

Flying cars seem a long way off.

The next one.

Using renewable resources will be better for everyone.

So again, we're using this gerund as the subject.

Using renewable resources will be better for everyone.

Now a renewable resource is one in which you can

use time and time again.

Things like solar, wind, and wave.

So you're using the natural resources in order

to generate electricity.

Nonrenewable is something that is finite,

something that is going to run out.

We don't know when, but there's only so much oil

that we can use.

It's finite, it's going to run out at a certain point

in the future.

Okay so those are some great phrases that you can use

to talk about the future.

And obviously there are different topics

that we are talking about here.

I think a lot of the time when we talk about the future,

we do think about cities, we think about transport.

Those are some of the things that come to mind.

We also talked about whether we are an optimistic

or pessimistic about the future.

Like I said, go watch that whole conversation.

And now that you have these phrases,

you'll be able to understand.

You will be able to.

You'll be able to understand our conversation

a little bit better.

Now if you want to get some premium phrases with this,

and to download audio, and memory cards, and also to get

the different tutorials that I talked about before,

then join the To Fluency program.

There will be a link at the end of this video

so you can go and check that out.

Now if you have enjoyed this lesson,

then please like and share it.

And while you're here, take a look around.

Take a look around the channel to see other videos

that we have made.

Okay, thanks again for watching.

Speak to you soon.

Bye bye.

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