[Grammar] The meeting takes place at 4.pm.

[Son Ho]

Good afternoon, everyone. Please help me with these two sentences. I use the simple present tense to tell about a timetable in the future. Are they correct? By the way, I was wondering if I could use be going to or will in these sentences. Thank you a lot in advance.

1. The meeting takes place at 4 p.m.
2. Because of the train delay, the meeting doesn't take place at 4 p.m.

 

[tedmc]

Good afternoon, everyone. Please help me with these two sentences. I use the simple present tense to [STRIKE]tell[/STRIKE] talk about a timetable in the future. Are they correct? By the way, I was wondering if I could use be going to or will in these sentences. Thank you a lot in advance.

1. The meeting takes place at 4 p.m.
2. Because of the train delay, the meeting doesn't take place at 4 p.m.

No. 1 is fine though I prefer "will be held".
No. 2 is unnatural.

I would say:
Because of the train delay, the meeting at 4.00 pm is cancelled/off.
Because of the train delay, there will be no meeting at 4 p.m.

Yes, you can also use the future tense (is going to be/will be).

 

[jutfrank]

1 is okay, but it's better to say The meeting is at 4 p.m.

2 is not right. What you mean is either that the meeting has been cancelled or rescheduled. Here are two ways you could say this:

The meeting at 4 p.m. is cancelled.
The meeting is postponed until further notice.

Alternatively, you could use the present perfect. Here are two ways you could do this:

The meeting at 4 p.m. has been cancelled.
Today's meeting has been rescheduled.

You cannot use will or going to in these sentences because that it is a different future form, with a different use.

Instead of thinking of this use of the present simple for timetabled events, it's more helpful to think of it as stating a simple fact. Let me try to explain what I mean with two examples:

The meeting is at 4 p.m. today.
The meeting is not at 4 p.m. today.

Both of these sentences express a simple fact. Although it is possible to think of the positive sentence as a timetabled event, it is not possible to consider the negative sentence in such a way.

 

[Son Ho]

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. It is not possible to consider the negative sentence as a timetabled event because it won't happen. Is it right?

 

[jutfrank]

I'd recommend that you do not try to think of the meeting in either the positive or the negative sentence as a timetabled event.

When teachers and coursebooks talk about timetabled events, they're thinking about things that happen frequently and routinely, like a bus line, for example.

The meaning of your original sentence The meeting takes place at 4 p.m. is unclear. In order for me to check whether the sentence is correct, could you please tell me who you imagine saying/writing this sentence? Who is going to hear/read it?

 

[Son Ho]

Thank you very much. I imagine that a manager told his staff the sentence The meeting is at 4 p.m today. It means either a weekly event as a timetable or another unusual event as a simple fact which is going to happen just today, doesn't it?

By the way, could you please help me with the differences between the simple present and the simple future in these following sentences? I think they have the same meaning because they both state a simple fact in the future.

1. The meeting is at 4 p.m today.
2. The meeting will be at 4 p.m today.

 

[jutfrank]

No, the reason I added today was to help show that this is not a regular (timetabled) event, but a specific one.

What I wanted to know was what you meant when you wrote the original sentence. What did you mean when you said:

I use the simple present tense to tell about a timetable in the future.

My advice is not to think of meetings as timetabled events.

Let me show you two sentences:

The meeting takes place at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoons. = a regular event
The meeting is at 4 p.m. today. = a specific (one-time) event in the future

If you want an example of use of the present simple for a timetabled specific event in the future, look at this mini-dialogue:

Q: I think we just missed the bus.
A: It's okay—there's another one in ten minutes.

 

[Son Ho]

Let me show you two sentences:

The meeting takes place at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoons. = a regular event
The meeting is at 4 p.m. today. = a specific (one-time) event in the future

Thank you. Could I replace your second sentence with the following one?

The meeting will be at 4 p.m. today. = a specific (one-time) event or a fact in the future.

 

[GoesStation]

Thank you. Could I replace your second sentence with the following one?

The meeting will be at 4 p.m. today. = a specific (one-time) event or a fact in the future.

Yes, that's fine.

 

[jutfrank]

Thank you. Could I replace your second sentence with the following one?

The meeting will be at 4 p.m. today. = a specific (one-time) event or a fact in the future.

No. If you change the future form, you change the effect.

Since the sentence no longer uses the present simple, it is no longer presented as a fact. With will, it reads like a notification.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

In the US, we would usually say "The meeting is at 4:00."

(We don't have meetings at 4 a.m.)