Englishtown
Englishtown
Free
English for New Immigrants !
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Grammar
for foreigner:
ESL-52
ESL-53
Dictionary:
Ccontents: １．Present
Time 2.
Past Time 3.
Future Time
4.
The Present Perfect and The Past Perfect
5.
Asking Questions 6.
Nouns and Pronouns
7. Modal Auxiliaries
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3-1 Expressing Future Time(表达将来时间):Be Going To and Will |
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(a) I am going to leave at nine tomorrow
morning. |
Be going to
and will are used to express future time.
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(e) I shall leave at nine tomorrow
morning. |
The use of shall (with I or we) to express future time is possible but infrequent. |
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3-2 Form With Be Going To |
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(a) we are going to be late. |
Be going to, will are followed by the simple form of the verb, as in (a), (b) and (c). | |
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Question: be +subject + going to
will +subject +verb |
Negative: be + not +going to Subject + will not (won't) +verb |
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| (d) “Hurry up! We're gonna be late!” | Be going to is more common in speaking and in informal writing than in formal writing. In informal speaking, it is sometimes pronounced “gonna”/gənə/.“Gonna” is not usually a written form. | |
| 3-3 Sureness About The Future | ||
| 100% sure |
(a) I will be in class tomorrow. Or I am going to be in class tomorrow. |
In (a): the speaker use will or be going to because he feels sure about his future activity. He is stating a fact about the future. |
| 90% sure |
(b) Po will probably be in class tomorrow.
Or Po is probably going to be in class tomorrow. (c) Anna probably won’t be in class tomorrow. Or Anna probably isn’t going to be in class tomorrow. |
In (b): The speaker uses
probably to say that he expects Po to be in
class tomorrow, but he is not 100% sure. He’s almost
sure, but not completely sure. |
| 50% sure |
(d) Ail may (not) come
to class tomorrow, or |
May expresses a future possibility: maybe something will happen, and maybe it won’t happen. In (d): The speaker is saying that maybe Ail will come to class, or maybe he won’t come to class. The speaker is guessing. |
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Maybe
+ will/be going to gives the
same meaning as may. (d) and (e) have the
same meaning. Maybe comes at the beginning of a sentence. |
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| 3-4 Expressing The Future In Time Clauses and If-Clauses | ||
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(time clause ) (a) Before I go to class tomorrow, I’m going to eat breakfast. (b) I’m going to eat breakfast before I go to class. |
In (a) and (b): before I go to class tomorrow is a
future time clause. before after + subject and verb= a time clause as soon as |
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(c) Before I go home tonight, I’m
going to stop at the market. (d) I’m going to eat dinner at 6:00 tonight. After I eat dinner, I’m going to study in my room. (e) I’ll give Rita your message when I see her. (f) it’s raining right now. As soon as the rain stops, I’m going to walk downtown. (g) I’ll stay home until the rain stops. (h) While you’re at school tomorrow, I’ll be at work. |
The simple present is used in a future time clause. Will
and be going to are NOT used in a future time clause.
Incorrect: Before I will go to class, I’m going to eat breakfast. Incorrect: Before I am going to go to class tomorrow, I’m going to eat breakfast. All of the example sentences, (c) through (h), contain future time clauses. |
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| ( i ) Maybe it will rain tomorrow. If it rains tomorrow, I’m going to stay home. |
In ( i ): if it rains tomorrow is an if-clause.
if + subject and verb + an if-clause When the meaning is future, the simple present (not will or be going to) is used in an if-clause. |
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3-5 Using The Present Progressive To Express Future Time |
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(a) Tom is going to come to the party
tomorrow. |
The present progressive can be used to express future
time. Each pair of example sentence has the same
meaning. |
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A future meaning for the present progressive is indicated either by future time words (eg., tomorrow) or by the situation.* |
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(i) You’re going to laugh
when you hear this joke. |
The present progressive is NOT used for predictions about the future. In (i ): The speaker is predicting a future event. In (j): The present progressive is not possible; laughing is prediction, not a planned future event. |
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* Present situation: Look! Mary’s coming. Do you see her? |
*Future situation: Are you planning to come to the party? Mary’s coming. |
| 3-6 Using The Simple Present To Express Future Time | |
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(a). My plane arrives at 7:35tomorrow evening. |
The simple present can express future time when events are on a definite schedule or timetable. Only a few verbs are used in the simple present to express future time. The most common are arrive leave start, begin, end, finish, open, close, be. |
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e) Incorrect: I wear my new suit to the
wedding nest week |
Most verbs cannot be used in the simple present to express future time. For example, in (e): The verb wear does not express an event on a schedule or timetable. It cannot be used in the simple express future time. |
| 3-7 Immediate Future: Using Be About To | |
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(a) Ann’s bags are packed, and she is wearing her coat.
She is about to leave for the airport. |
The idiom “be about to do something” expresses an activity that will happen in the immediate future, usually within minutes or seconds. In (a): Ann is going to leave sometime in the next few minutes. |
| 3-8 Parallel Verbs(相应 ，或平行的动词) | |
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V
and V (a) Jim makes his bed and cleans up his room every morning. |
Often a subject has two verbs that are connected by and.
We say that the two verbs are parallel: |
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(b) Ann is cooking dinner and (is)
talking on the phone at the same time. |
It is not necessary to repeat a helping verb (an auxiliary) when two verbs are connected by and. |