Guide to English grammar

Present simple • 64 A present state I like comedies. A permanent routine I work late most days. Past simple • 65 An action in the past I wrote the letter yesterday. A series of past actions I played basketball years ago. A past state I was there for a week. Past perfect • 68 An action before a past time The rain had stopped by then. A state before a past time The weather had been awful.

A practical guide to English grammar 78

10
The future

70 Summary

This news item is about something in the future.
CINEMA TO CLOSE
The Maxime Cinema is to close in November, it was announced yesterday. The owner of the building, Mr. Charles Peters, has sold it to a firm of builders, who are going to build a block of old people's flats on the site. “The cinema has become uneconomic to run,” said Mr. Peters. The last performance is on Saturday 17^th November, and after that the cinema will finally close its doors after sixty years in business. “This town won't be the same again,” said camera operator Bert Dudley, who has worked at the cinema for eighteen years. Mr. Dudley (67) is retiring when the cinema closes. In future, cinema goers will have to travel ten miles to the nearest cinema.
There are different ways of expressing the future.

Will and shall • 71
The cinema will close in November.
We shall close the doors for the last time.

Be going to • 72
The cinema is going to close soon.

Present tense forms • 73
The cinema is closing in November.
The cinema closes on November 17th.

Will, be going to or the present continuous? • 74
The choice of form depends on whether we are making a prediction about the future, expressing an intention, or talking about a plan for the future, and so on.