Apart from using Simple Future and Be-going-to Future to talk about processes in the future, we tend to use Present Simple and Present Continuous to talk about future as well. However, learners may find it confusing to differentiate Simple Future from Simple Present, and also Present Continuous from Be-going-to Future. This blogpost gives an overview of how these Present Tenses can be used and what we need to pay attention to in terms of meaning, form, and pronunciation.
What does ‘Present’ mean in English?
In grammar, the concept of ‘presentness’ does not purely equate to ‘now’ or ‘present time’. Tense is a complex interpersonal system in grammar which indicates an idea of closeness. In other words, we use present tense because the event is close to the speaker’s ‘now’. It is also close to the reality and very likely the people we are talking to are close to us too. Therefore, present tense can convey a complex idea of timelessness or permanence, instantaneity, and social intimacy.
What is the form of Present Simple and Present Continuous
As for Present Simple, verbs are not conjugated (i.e. remain unchanged) when they are used with first-person, second-person, and third-person plurals; they are conjugated by adding the Suffix (word ending) of -s or -es when they are used with third-person singular nouns / pronouns:
- I / You / They enjoy playing Rummikub.
- Peter and Jack enjoy wrestling.
- He / She fancies ice-skating.
- Jill lives in New York.
In terms of the negatives, the Helping Verbs (or Auxiliary Verbs) ‘do’ are used and follow the conjugation pattern mentioned above; the main verbs remain unchanged:
- I / You / They do not enjoy playing Rummikub.
- Peter and Jack do not enjoy wrestling.
- He / She does not fancy ice-skating.
- Jill does not live in New York.
In terms of forming questions, we usually change the order of the Helping Verbs and the Subjects (we call it Inversion):
- Do I / you / they enjoy playing Rummikub?
- Do Peter and Jack enjoy wrestling?
- Does he / she fancy ice-skating?
- Does Jill live in New York?
For Present Continuous, we use the Helping Verb (Auxiliary Verb) ‘Be’ to indicate the Present and the Present Participle (-ing verb) to indicate the Progressiveness:
- ➕ Peter is talking to the police.
- ➕ Jack and Tom are talking to the police.
- ➖Peter is not talking to the police.
- ➖Jack and Tom are not talking to the police.
- ❓Are Jack and Tom talking to the police?
- ❓Is Peter talking to the police?
How do we use Present Simple to talk about future?
Present Simple is usually used to talk about habitual actions and universal truth. Usually when we talk about future routine or scheduled events in the future, Present Simple will be used as we are presenting factual ideas. Look at the following examples:
- The public library opens at 9:00 am next Monday.
- The flight takes off at 10:00 am tomorrow.
In the above examples, we are presenting information from timetables and flight schedules, which are something factual, thus using Present Simple.
How do we use Present Continuous to talk about future?
Present Continuous talks about processes which are on-going and temporary rather than permanent. It can also be used to talk about a fixed arrangement of activities in the future:
- We are taking our English exam at 9:00 am tomorrow.
- We are having a Christmas party next Monday.
In the examples above, the processes of taking exams and having a Christmas party have already been planned before and will happen in a fixed period, thus using Present Continuous.
What is the difference between Present Simple and Future Simple when talking about future?
Present Simple is used to talk about future processes which have been scheduled or are part of the routine. They are usually factual ideas which appear in schedules and timetables. Future Simple is used to talk about one-off future processes which have usually not been planned yet but will likely happen.
- The movie starts at 2 pm next Monday.
- I will watch a movie next Monday.
- The flight takes off at 9 pm on 18th August.
- I will fly to Barcelona next month.
What’s the difference between Present Continuous and Be-going-to future?
Present Continuous differs from Be-going-to Future in a way that the former indicates an arranged action whereas the latter indicates intention of performing the action:
- Samson is visiting the theatre with his classmates next Monday.
- Samson is going to visit the theatre next Monday.
In example (1), the process of visiting the theatre has been planned, with ticket being bought and transport being arranged (by the class teacher). Samson will very likely go there with his classmates. However, it doesn’t mean he intends to visit the theatre. In example (2), Samson has decided to go to the theatre, and we are not sure whether it has been arranged or not. Therefore, we use Be-going-to future instead of Present Continuous.
Are there any signal words that indicate the use of Present Simple and Present Continuous to talk about future?
When talking about future, we usually have time markers such as next Monday, tomorrow, in 2040, in the future, etc. to indicate the future circumstances. We can usually see similar time markers when we use Present Simple and Present Continuous to talk about future. In Present Simple specifically, we may probably use a more precise marker to indicate a slot in a schedule or timetable, such as ‘at 9:00 tomorrow’. In terms of Present Continuous, there is no significant future time marker in the sentence. Instead, we decide whether the processes are planned or not by looking at contextual information surrounding the processes in the speech.
Reminder of pronunciation
In term of pronouncing ‘is/am/are + Present Participle’ in Present Continuous, the word stress is placed in the content, i.e. the present participle. ‘is/am/are’ is a function word and we don’t usually use the strong form of ‘is’ (ɪz) or ‘are’ (ɑː) in tenses; instead, we weaken the sound and replace the vowel with a schwa. In other words, it is pronounced as /əz/ and /ə/.
For the -ing sound in Present Participle, we tend to replace the /ŋ/ sound in the end with an /n/ sound for ease of articulation. To sum up, we don’t stress the verb-to-be; we only stress the Present Participle with the ‘ing’ sound weakened for easier pronunciation.