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03-Dec-2007, 22:30
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| |  Simple Present OR Simple Future
Hi there,
What tense can we use this sentence?
"This coming weekend, we......to Paris."
There were four choices two were grammatically impossible, but the other two were: 1. go
2. will go
I was wondering if the two are possible answers... 
Last edited by dr_linguista; 04-Dec-2007 at 11:24.
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03-Dec-2007, 22:40
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
"This coming weekend, we go to Paris." is not grammatical. You cannot use the bare infinitive for the future tense.
"This coming weekend, we will go to Paris." Acceptable
"This coming weekend, we are going to Paris." Most common |
03-Dec-2007, 22:53
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
The infinitive can also be grammatical.
In sentences like:
The exam starts at 8.00 am tomorrow.
The simple present expressed the future in that statement.
But I am not sure if this can be appropriate for the sentence with go.  |
04-Dec-2007, 00:58
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
I can think of occasions in which "we go" would be used with reference to a future event. Anyone on tour, from the presidential hustings, to a touring pop star or any entertainer doing cross-country gigs might say: "On Friday, we're in L.A., and on Saturday, we go to New York." |
04-Dec-2007, 06:14
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
I agree that "This coming weekend we go to Paris." is grammatical and acceptable. It is clear that the sentence speaks about the future, so "will" can be omitted.
If one says it is not acceptable, I think that one also has to say that "...we are going to Paris." is unaccceptable and that we should use '...we will go to Paris.' or '...we will be going to Paris.' or '...we are going to go to Paris.' |
04-Dec-2007, 21:57
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
I was wrong to call "we go to Paris" ungrammatical. It's just less common than other constructions. |
05-Dec-2007, 16:51
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2006  I agree that "This coming weekend we go to Paris." is grammatical and acceptable. It is clear that the sentence speaks about the future, so "will" can be omitted.
If one says it is not acceptable, I think that one also has to say that "...we are going to Paris." is unacceptable and that we should use '...we will go to Paris.' or '...we will be going to Paris.' or '...we are going to go to Paris.' | It is not a case of omission here. Like the example (the exam starts at....) the verb (starts) expresses the future. we cannot consider it as a case of omission, can we?
besides, I've never spoke to my students about omission...they're just beginners...  |
05-Dec-2007, 22:01
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| | Re: Simple Present OR Simple Future
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr_linguista It is not a case of omission here. Like the example (the exam starts at....) the verb (starts) expresses the future. we cannot consider it as a case of omission, can we?
besides, I've never spoke to my students about omission...they're just beginners... | I think we can consider it a case of omission. I would think that native speakers of all languages take shortcuts, and at some point all learners of English have to know that English has many shortcuts.
Of course you can teach your students to say "...we will go to Paris.", and that is almost certainly the expected answer on the exam. But certainly native speakers say it both ways, with and without "will". | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
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