Future tense?

[Alan]

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Hi,

The French language creates a special version of the verb as do some other languages. English misses out on this process and resorts to all sorts of devices to convey the same idea. And that’s where the problem starts. Which one should you choose? I am talking here about expressing the future in English. There isn’t a future tense that we can turn to. What we do have are the two modals ‘will’ and ‘shall’. Traditionally ‘will’ tends to be used with all persons and ‘shall’ more often with the first person singular and plural. But the question is when we use one and not the other.

‘Will’ has very much the sense of ‘want’ and ‘wish’ and clearly we usually want and wish for things that are going to happen in the future. ‘Shall’ has the same sort of idea but has the added strength of some kind of determination and in that respect is stronger. ‘I shall do that’ sounds more definite than ‘I will do that’. When we use ‘shall’ with the second and third persons, we are in a way telling this other person/those other persons what they have to do. We are indeed giving them orders: You shall do as I say/They shall finish their homework by 9 o’clock at the very latest. Of course in conversation the problem of deciding which one to choose disappears because we all use the abbreviated form as in: ‘I’ll, you’ll and so on.

In questions both ‘will’ and ‘shall’ have a part to play. When we ask: Shall we share the cost of the meal? we are expecting an affirmative response and also we are asking for an opinion in a polite way. When we ask: Will you help me lift this? we are making a request in a polite way.

Two expressions that capture the basic meaning of ‘shall’ and ‘will’ are: willy-nilly and shilly- shally. ‘Willy-nilly’ has two meanings. First it means that something will happen whether you like it or not as in: You can argue as much as you like about this regulation but you must stick to the rules, willy-nilly. It can also describe something that is in disorder as in: They planted the bulbs in the garden not in straight lines but here and there, willy-nilly’. The origin of this comes from the idea of: What does he want? ‘Will he? Or will he not? Shilly-shally describes hesitation as in: Come on make a decision now as there is no time to shilly-shally. The origin of this comes form the sort of thing you say to yourself when you can’t make your mind up: I just can’t decide what to do, shall I or shall I not?

Now I said at the beginning that there are all sorts of devices we use in English to convey the future. Take this as a situation: Charlie and Mary have decided to get married. The date of the wedding has been arranged for February 14th.

We can use the present continuous to state the simple future: Charlie and Mary are getting married on February 14th’

We can describe this as a future intention: Charlie and Mary are going to get married on February 14th;

We can express this as a future fact: Charlie and Mary get married on February 14th.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple