Overview
__NOTOC__ = I'm going to Athens in the summer = Aim of this lesson: Learn the various ways to talk about the future in English. Chloe and Michael are students at university in Manchester. They're talking about their plans for the weekend and the summer.
Grammar Focus - Future Forms
There are many ways to talk about the future in English. * Generally going to and present continuous are interchangeable but if you use present continuous you must say when the event is happening. * Present simple is not commonly used in English to talk about the future except in cases like school subjects, cinema times, and train and bus times. * In spoken English the phrase 'going to' is normally contracted and pronounced as 'gonna'.
Speaking about the future
Work with a partner, if you can, and ask/answer these questions. If you're on your own you should think about these questions and write your answers instead. * What are you doing at the weekend? * If the weather's hot tomorrow, what will you do? * Who do you think will win the next World Cup? * Are you going on holiday this summer? * If a friend needs money, will you lend them some?
Exercises
Try these questions to see if you can use future forms correctly. The answers can be found here. Complete the following sentences using the correct future form: # I've just been to the travel agents, on Saturday I'll go / I'm going to London. # According to the timetable, the next bus will arrive / arrives at 10:05. # I think that Manchester United will win / are going to win the match. # It's getting very cold. Will you / Are you going to close the window? # On Sunday I will visit / am going to visit my grandmother.
Grammar Reference
For further information about future forms see ../Tenses and Forms/.