Tenses - The Future

 **Decisions, decisions  (and Promises, promises)

Kid 1: When I grow up, I’m going to marry Tracey Downs.

Kid 2: Bet you don’t.

Kid 1: Why?

Kid 2: She’s marrying me. Nuh nuh-nuh NUH nuh.
Kid 1: You’re, like, so childish.

Statement of Form

Future with going to: subject + am/is/are + going to + base form

Future simple: subject + will (or might) + base form

With ‘probably’:

(positive) will probably

(negative) probably won’t

Students need to know

Native speakers have many different ways of referring to the future (there is no ‘future tense’) and if you ask them to say why they used a particular form, they will have no idea. This is a fairly reliable summary:

If you’re talking about a plan, use “going to”.

If it’s an arrangement with somebody, use the present continuous.

Tenses - Present Perfect

Briton: I’ve been to Paris.

American: Paris, France?

Briton: Oh dear.

Statement of form

subject + have / has + past participle

subject + have / has + been + verb_ing

Students really need to know

There are several meanings:

Life experience…

“I’ve slept with Lucinda Braithwaite.”

“Yeah, she said.”

Conditionals - Third Conditional

If we’d chosen just one different number, we’d have won the lottery.

If we’d bought a ticket.

Well, naturally, if we’d bought a ticket.

Statement of Form

If + past perfect, would + have + past perfect

Students need to know

We're talking about the past, and speculating: the events described didn't happen, but we’re imagining they did. We often use this to talk about:

regrets...

"If I'd known there was a civil war going on, I wouldn't have booked those two weeks in the Central African Republic.”

Tenses - Future Continuous

What will you be doing this evening, Dr Spooner?

I’ll be beading a rook.

Eh?

I’ll be reading a book, old chap.

Statement of form

Subject + will + be +verb_ing

Students need to know

An action in progress at a time in the future.

Damian: "Don't call me at 2am after I've been to the club with the lads! You know what I'll be doing!!"

Wayne: "Sleeping?”

Damian: "Yep."

Tenses - Future Perfect

Wife: Just think, by May we’ll have found a buyer for the house and we’ll have moved to Margate.

Husband. Yes. Just think.

Statement of Form

subject + will + have + past participle

What students need to know

It describes an action completed by - that is to say before - some specified time in the future:

“By the time I retire, I’ll have travelled the world.”

“In your dreams, son.”

Modals verbs - Deduction

A: I don’t understand: he MUST be at home: the lights are on, the car’s in the driveway, I can hear music, it’s his day off, it’s way after closing time, and yet, he hasn't answered the door.

B: He can’t have heard the bell.

A: Oh, I haven’t tried the bell. What a good idea.

Statement of form

Talking about the present: modal verb + base form

Talking about the past: modal verb + have + past participle

What students need to know

This isn't talking about facts; it's what's the speaker believes to be true – usually based on evidence of some kind. He or she is either sure something is true (‘must’), or sure something isn’t true (‘can’t’), or not very sure at all (“might” or “could”).

Tense - The simple present

♬Ol’ Man River, he don’t say nothing…

I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but that should be “He doesn't say anything.”

Statement of form

Sbj + present tense verb (the base form, unless the subject is ‘he, ‘she’ or ‘it’, in which case add -s or –es, depending on the spelling of the base form).

For ‘be’, it’s ‘am’, ‘is’ or ‘are’.

Students need to know

We use it talk about what we see as general truths. So that includes:

routines and habits

“I wake up every morning, stumble out of bed…”

common knowledge

“Klingons rule this quadrant.”

Conditionals - Zero Conditional

Cop: Freeze! Nobody move!

Villain: That’s a bit like absolute zero, officer.

Cop: Eh?

Villain: Well, if you freeze water down to absolute zero, nothing moves – not even the molecules.

Cop: In the van!

Statement of Form

if + present tense, present tense 

(or, more generally)  if + time reference, same time reference

What students need to know

You don't mess with zero conditional. It expresses hard facts:

If you don't attend school, you flunk the semester. Period.

If you heat water, it boils - you got that, pumpkin head?

“I’m not saying my school was rough, but if you made eye contact with a dinner lady, she spat in your lunch.”