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Thread: present simple/future?

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    hooshdar3 is offline Banned
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    Default present simple/future?

    Hi

    The sentence is:

    "She’s still in Taiwan. She doesn’t get back until next week."

    Seems that does is used to refer to future!What is the rule?

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    hooshdar3 is offline Banned
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    Threadstarter / Original Poster

    Default Re: present simple/future?

    Another example:
    "I get back on Friday afternoon. I’ll call you then."

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    Default Re: present simple/future?

    “The present simple is frequently used for situations that often or regularly happen. It can therefore be used for a future situation that is part of a regular series of happenings:


    The train for Berlin leaves at midnight tonight.

    It is also used for something that is seen as part of a fixed timetable:


    The sun rises at 07.34 tomorrow. (We can imagine the speaker thinking of a table of sunrise and sunset times.)


    Emma sees Luke tomorrow. (We can imagine the speaker mentally looking at Emma’s diary).”

    From: Ways of Expressing the Future in English
    Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.


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    Default Re: present simple/future?

    Quote Originally Posted by 5jj View Post
    “The present simple is frequently used for situations that often or regularly happen. It can therefore be used for a future situation that is part of a regular series of happenings:


    The train for Berlin leaves at midnight tonight.

    It is also used for something that is seen as part of a fixed timetable:


    The sun rises at 07.34 tomorrow. (We can imagine the speaker thinking of a table of sunrise and sunset times.)


    Emma sees Luke tomorrow. (We can imagine the speaker mentally looking at Emma’s diary).”

    From: Ways of Expressing the Future in English
    But examples I provided, don't indicate timetable events, as called by Micheal Swan.

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    Default Re: present simple/future?

    They are fixed future events. Swan actually writes (my emphasis added): "This is common when we are talking about evenys which are part of a timetable, a regular schedule, or something similar".

    Swan, Michael (1980) Practical English Usage (3rd ed, 2005.190), Oxford: OUP

    bhaisahab and hooshdar3 like this.
    Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.


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