[Grammar] It´s the future that matters.

[Hucky]

In a workbook you can come upon a future tense exercise designed as a fictitious interview. In the answer part of the interviewee you have to decide on the appropriate future tense. Since the context, i.e. the preceding question of the interviewer carries implications as it contains the hints for the right decision on part of the student, I´ll give you this part first. It says:

Interviewer: Are you planning any more children with
Henry?

Interviewee: We (have/future tense) a child together

as soon as the time is right.

What future tense(s) would the native speaker decide on, and why?

With best thanks in advance and kind regards

Hucky

 

[mykwyner]

There is no future tense in English.

We express the future by using auxiliary verbs and verb phrases such as will and going to.

I walk two miles every day.
I walked two miles yesterday.
I will walk two miles tomorrow.

 

[5jj]

Interviewer: Are you planning any more children with
Henry?

Interviewee: We (have/future tense) a child together as soon as the time is right.

What future tense(s) would the native speaker decide on, and why?

We are going to have / we will have / we will be having / we are having / we plan to have / we are planning to have / etc.

All of these are possible.

As to the why - it depends on what is passing through the speaker's mind at the moment of speaking.

Very roughly:

We are going to have: there is evidence in our minds of the intention to have...
we will have: this is seen as a certainty (given the rightness of the time), or: it is our wish
we will be having: this is simply what will happen
we are having: we have arranged this.

For more tedious explanations of how we express futurity, try: http://www.gramorak.com/Articles/Future.pdf

 

[Hucky]

Just in brief, let me thank you both very much and also for your former valuable reply. They have been of much help to me. As time is approaching midnight, may I come back to you tomorrow evening with an additional question just to be on the safe side again? For the time being, all the best!

 

[Hucky]

Dear fivejedjon!



Thanks to your illustrative examples I can see your point very well. But do you also mean to say that all the four versions you are offering would work here in this context? Wouldn´t the speaker in the given situation – having been asked if she was planning – prefer one of them? Well, I for one would deem numbers 1 and 4 (going to/present continuous) more appropriate as they express an intention, an arrangement, resp. The keyword planning in the question seems to suggest that. But there might be another consideration here. The main clause of the answer in the future tense is combined with a temporal clause. Wouldn´t that rule out versions 3 an 4 (future continuous/present continuous)? Or can they also go with a temporal clause? What would be your favourite choice here, if there is one?


Thanks again and best greetings


Hucky


P.S. Dear mykwyner, of course, I would also appreciate your point of view in the issue.

 

[5jj]

What would be your favourite choice here, if there is one?

This is a classic case of 'grammar as choice'.

I honestly have no idea which of the utterances would emerge from my mouth if I were asked such a question. So much depends on so many intangibles which may influence a speaker's words without the speaker being consciously aware of them.

It's possible that I wouldn't use any future form at all, contenting myself with, "Yes, when we feel the time is right."

 

[Hucky]

Dear Fivejedon,

Well, that´s what real language usage is like in contrast to some isolated stereotype patterns. Best thanks for taking the time! Good night!

Hucky

 

[amy001]

But there might be another consideration here. The main clause of the answer in the future tense is combined with a temporal clause. Wouldn´t that rule out versions 3 an 4 (future continuous/present continuous)? Or can they also go with a temporal clause? What would be your favourite choice here, if there is one?

 

[5jj]

But there might be another consideration here. The main clause of the answer in the future tense is combined with a temporal clause. Wouldn´t that rule out versions 3 an 4 (future continuous/present continuous)?

In the right context, all of these tense/aspect forms are possible.