(no)Future

looking for the Future Tense

“il futuro in inglese si

costruisce con ‘will’ ” il futuro in inglese sicostruisce con ‘will’

“il futuro in inglese si

costruisce con ‘will’ ” il futuro in inglese sicostruisce con ‘will’

WRONG

IDEA

When Old English arrived in the British Isles in the 5th Century AD,

it didn’t have a future tense!

Modern English doesn’t have a ‘real’ Future Tense either.

?so

how does a language with no Future Tense refer to future

time?

consider:

I want to go to the cinema this evening.

I want to go to the cinema this evening.

present timeand Present Tense

I want to go to the cinema this evening.

future timeno tense

I want to go to the cinema this evening.

the verb in the Present ‘looks into the future’

I

planhopewantneed

expect

to go to the cinema this evening.

I

planhopewantneed

expect

to go to the cinema this evening.

many verbs can look into the future

in this way

I

planhopewantneed

expect

to go to the cinema this evening.

the choice of verb shows how we

view the action in the future

I

planhopewantneed

expect

to go to the cinema this evening.

the choice of verb shows how we

view the action in the future

it’s useful to communicate our viewpoint

in LINGUISTICSthis property is called

aspect

in our examplewe used vocab

to communicate aspect

planhopewantneed

expect

we are going to study how grammar

communicates aspect

these are the formsthat we are going to study:

present simple timetabled eventsabout to immediate futuregoing to future intentions

present continuous future plansmodal will and shall willingness

non-modal will and shall escape from aspect!

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