particularly those that use
will
or
shall
as the most universal and widely used—are
frequently described as future tense while some may argue these verbs serve both
as present modal verbs and future tense markers.
[4]
The
will/shall
future consists of the modal verb
will
or
shall
together with the
bare infinitive of the main verb, as in "He will win easily" or "I shall do it when
time permits". (Prescriptive grammarians prefer
will
in the second and third
persons and
shall
in the first person, reversing the forms to express obligation or
determination,
but
in
practice
shall
and
will
are
generally
used
interchangeably,
[6]
with
will
being more common. For details see
shall
and
will
.)
The meaning of this construction is close to that expressed by the future tense in
other languages. However the same construction with
will
or
shall
can have other
meanings that do not indicate futurity, or else indicate some modality in addition to
futurity (as in "He will make rude remarks", meaning he has a habit of doing so, or,
"You shall act on my behalf", giving an order). For details of these meanings, see
the sections on
will
and
shall
in the article on English modal verbs.
The form of the
will/shall
future described above is frequently called the
simple
future
(or
future simple
). Other constructions provide additional auxiliaries that
express particular aspects: the
future progressive
(or
future continuous
) as in "He
will be working"; the
future perfect
as in "They will have finished"; and the
future
perfect progressive
as in "You will have been practising." For detail on these, see
the relevant sections of Uses of English verb forms. (For more on expressions of
relative tense, such as the future perfect, see also the section above.)
Several other English constructions commonly refer to the future:
Present tense forms, as in "The train leaves at five," or, "My cousins arrive
tomorrow." Since these grammatical forms are used more canonically to refer
to present situations, they are not generally described as future tense; in
sentences like those just given they may be described as "present tense with
future meaning". Use of the present tense (rather than forms with
will
) is
mandatory in some subordinate clauses referring to the future, such as "If I feel
better next week, ..." and "As soon as they arrive, ...". For more details see the
sections on the simple present, present progressive and dependent clauses in the
article on English verb forms.
The
going-to
future, e.g., "John is going to leave tonight."
The construction with a finite form of the copula verb
be
together with the
to
-
infinitive, e.g., "John
is to leave
tonight". (With the zero copula of newspaper
headline style, this becomes simply "John to leave tonight".) For details see
am
to
.
The construction with
to be about to
, e.g., "John is about to leave", referring to
the expected immediate future. (A number of lexical expressions with similar
meaning also exist, such as
to be on the point of (doing something)
.)
Use of modal verbs with future meaning, to combine the expression of future
time with certain modality: "I
must
do this" (also
mun
in Northern English
dialect); "We
should
help him"; "I
can
get out of here"; "We
may
win";
"You
might
succeed". The same modal verbs are also often used with present
rather than future reference. For details of their meanings and usage,
see English modal verbs.
Questions and negatives are formed from all of the above constructions in the
regular manner: see Questions and Negation in the English grammar article. The
auxiliaries
will
and
shall
form the contracted negations
won't
and
shan't
(they can
also sometimes be contracted when not negated, to
'll
, such as in
I'll find it
).
The various ways of expressing the future carry different meanings, implying not
just futurity but also aspect (the way an action or state takes place in time)
and/or modality (the attitude of the speaker toward the action or state).
[3][7]
The
precise interpretation must be based on the context. In particular there is sometimes
a distinction in usage between the
will/shall
future and the
going-to
future
(although in some contexts they are interchangeable). For more information see
the
going-to
future article.
Dutch can express the future in three ways:
[8]
gaan
+ infinitive: Ik ga het boek lezen (I'm going to read the book). "
Gaan
" is
a cognate of "to go".
zullen
+ infinitive: Ik zal het boek lezen (I will/shall read the book). "
Zullen
" is
a cognate of "shall".
present tense
+ context or a temporal adverb or clause:
Hoe lang blijft hij in
Nederland
? (How long is he staying in the Netherlands?) Its English-language
equivalent uses the continuous or imperfective aspect.
Zullen
+ infinitive is more similar to
shall
than to
will
. It is used to:
[9]
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