[Grammar] how about...will be held orto be to be held?

Good afternoon and happy new year :-D,

Is it right to say "the conference is to be held on March the 3rd 2013" or "the conference will be held on March the 3rd 2013'?
If the first phrase is correct too, which kind of future is "to be to be + past participle"?:roll:
Thanks a lot,
Luigi

Both grammatical structures are correct, however in AmE we would write the date as March 3, 2013 or March 3rd 2013. It is possible to use a comma after 3rd. When speaking, we would say March third or March the third. There are many variations in both AmE and BrE.

I'm not sure what you mean by to be to be. Your example, to be held, is a passive infinitive and is commonly used in notices and announcements. See section 97/2 in Swan's Practical English Usage (1984).

In a podcast I have read "The Olympic Games are to be held in Beijing in China.". Well, I think it's just a future tense that, isn't it? Why do they use this kind of future, instead of the progressive tense or the future, such as "The Games are holding or are going to be held etcetera?
waiting for an explanation, thanks a lot
Luigi

scrooge1974 said:

Good afternoon and happy new year :-D,

Is it right to say "the conference is to be held on March the 3rd 2013" or "the conference will be held on March the 3rd 2013'?
If the first phrase is correct too, which kind of future is "to be to be + past participle"?:roll:
Thanks a lot,
Luigi

Click to expand...

Both are acceptable. Like riquecohen, I would remove "the" in the date.

The conference will be held on March 3rd 2013.
The conference is to be held on March 3rd 2013.
The conference will take place on March 3rd 2013.
The conference is to take place on March 3rd 2013.

You could also use "3rd March 2013", "3-3-2013" or "3/3/2013 (luckily, 3rd March means that it doesn't matter whether you're using the British or American number order for dates. Had it been 4th March, it would be 4-3-2013 or 4/3/2013 in BrE, but 3-4-2013 or 3/4/2013 in AmE).

ok but how about the construction if the verb? when I can use "is (are) to be + past participle"?

and is it this kind of verb equal to "is beeing held"?

For me "This meeting will be held on March 3rd" is the same is "This meeting is being held on March 3rd".

Thanks for the anwers Moderator and Riquecoh, you both are very polite[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]![/FONT]