PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

[eliff]

Hello,

I took a look into an English grammar book and I saw this note: For plans that are sure to happen, we are 'the present continuous tense',[STRIKE] not 'going to future'[/STRIKE]

For example, I am flying to Rio tonight.Look! Here is the plane ticket!
[STRIKE] I am going to fly to Rio tonight.Look! Here is the plane ticket!
[/STRIKE]
Is the second sentence incorrect?

2)Go and come...It says that It is unusual to use 'go' and 'come' with 'going to future tense'.

Can't we use 'go and come' for future tense?

I am going to go there tomorrow.
Is that incorrect?

Thank you..

 

[billmcd]

Hello,

I took a look into an English grammar book and I saw this note: For plans that are sure to happen, we are 'the present continuous tense',[STRIKE] not 'going to future'[/STRIKE]

For example, I am flying to Rio tonight.Look! Here is the plane ticket!
[STRIKE] I am going to fly to Rio tonight.Look! Here is the plane ticket!
[/STRIKE]
Is the second sentence incorrect? No, it is OK.

2)Go and come...It says that It is unusual to use 'go' and 'come' with 'going to future tense'.

Can't we use 'go and come' for future tense? Yes.

I am going to go there tomorrow.
Is that incorrect? No, it is OK.

Thank you..

What English book?

 

[5jj]

What English book?

I agree with Bill's response to the OP in post #2.
Unfortunately, I have seen similar advice to that mentioned by Eliff in more than one course book - sorry, I can't remember which.

One of the frustrating things about teaching ways of expressing the future in English is the need to correct the wrong ideas picked up by learners from some books and teachers. These include:

The future tense is formed with 'will' - There is no future tense in English.
There is always a significant difference in meaning between the present progressive and Be going to for the future - There isn't.
BE going to always/only expresses present intention - It doesn't.
BE going to cannot be used with 'go' and 'come' - It can.

 

[allenman]

The future tense is formed with 'will' - There is no future tense in English.

Seriously? I hope you're not trying to convince anyone of that -- the future does exist in English. Or are you trying to be picky and use "simple future/future simple" to replace "future?". We were taught, as natives, to use "future" for what is now referred to as "simple future". Perhaps time has changed teaching? Or is this a BrE thing?

 

[5jj]

Seriously? I hope you're not trying to convince anyone of that -- the future does exist in English. Or are you trying to be picky and use "simple future/future simple" to replace "future?". We were taught, as natives, to use "future" for what is now referred to as "simple future". Perhaps time has changed teaching? Or is this a BrE thing?

[FONT=&quot]If we mean by the word tense 'inflected term',then it should be clear that there are only two such forms in English, the Present Simple and the Past Simple. Such forms as the Progressive (or Continuous) and Perfect, formed with an auxiliary are more usefully considered as aspects; and futurity is more usefully considered with such concepts as certainty and intention. There is no Future Tense as such in English, simply a number of ways in which we can speak about future situations.

Note that the word 'simple' is normally used for tense forms, not aspects; to talk of the 'present perfect simple', for example, is therefore unhelpful. To call 'I will go' an example of a 'future simple (tense)' form is doubly unhelpful. It is not a future tense form, and it is not simple.

It is true that 'I will go' frequently refers to an action that will take place in future time, but then so can the other modals, the present progressive, BE going to, etc.

I have given below a link to an expansion of my thoughts on this subject, but please note that this line of thought is not just mine. Few grammarians in the last half-century or more have written of a future tense in English Even in the 17th century, John Wallis wrote of English having two tenses.

http://www.gramorak.com/Articles/Future.pdf
[/FONT]

 

[5jj]

Unfortunately, I have seen similar advice to that mentioned by Eliff in more than one course book - sorry, I can't remember which.

I have just found one:

File 5: Future tenses
1. Future simple: will + bare infinitive...
2. going to...
3. Present Continuous...
4. Present Simple...
5. Future continuous: will be + ing...
6. Future perfecct: will have + past partciple...
7, due to...
8. be about to

Stanton, Alan & Stephens, Mary (2001.178) Fast Track to FCE, Harlow: Longman.


This very unhelpfully implies that we have eight future tenses in English, including the present continuous and the present simple.

:roll: