The simple future refers to a time later than now and expresses facts or certainty. It is used to predict future events, express spontaneous decisions and express either willingness or unwillingness to do something. Simple Future has two different forms in English: “will” and “be going to.” We form the simple future by using: Subject + will + Infinitive or Subject + Going to + Infinitive.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
First person | Notes |
It will snow next week. | Statements that present fact and certainty. |
The store will open at 9 am on Monday. | |
I will make a phone call. | Spontaneous decision making (this means that they were originally not planning to do these actions). |
They will be coming now. | |
He will carry your bag for you. | Expressions of willingness or unwillingness. |
I will not join this exercise. |
You can ask questions with the simple future tense by using “will” for all the pronouns. For example: Will he come? Will they come?
You can add “not” after the pronoun after “will” to make a negative statement. For example: Will they not come? Will she not work?
You can abbreviate “will not” to “won’t”. For example: Won’t he come?
For every other pronoun + will variation, it works as “pronoun’ll”. For example: he’ll, I’ll, it’ll, they’ll etc.
Let’s do some exercises with what we have learned already. Place the appropriate simple future word in the gaps and make sure to include “will” and “going to”: marry, build, see, work, watch, finish, make, buy, take, call, clean, meet.
- I am ______ him tonight.
- We are _______ at the of the year.
- I ______ you at the party.
- He _______ dinner for us.
- Mark ________ you at the park.
- I _______ the early morning train.
- She ________ a new music album.
- I am _______ the house tomorrow.
- I _________ reading all these books by the end of the month.
- They ________ a movie.
- He ________ until 6 pm.
- His company _________ a new apartment building.