0

I have a book called "The practice of English grammar." by Izrailevich, Katchalova. It's quite old.

I wonder whether what it says is true and accurate. Is it really true that you use the simple future tense with these designations of time interchangeably with the future continuous tense?

It says in paragraph § 27 that the future continuous tense is sometimes used alongside with the future simple tense with such designations of time as all day long, all day tomorrow, all the time, the whole evening, from five till six, etc.

When the speaker uses the future continuous tense they show an action as a process, but when the speaker uses the future simple tense they just state a fact of doing the action.

Then it shows these examples:

"He will be reading the whole evening." and "He will read the whole evening."

"I shall be preparing for my examination all day tomorrow." and "I shall prepare for my examination all day tomorrow."

"They will be working in the library from three till five." and "They will work in the library from three till five."

Then it says that when an action with such a time designation is one of two or more consecutive actions, then only the future simple is used:

"I'll come home early, I'll rest from five till six, and then I'll work the whole evening."

Improve this question
11
  • I can see no error there. You can use both "future simple" (bad name) and future continuous with time expressions, but the meaning is subtly different. That seems uncontroversial.
    – James K
    Apr 2, 2022 at 16:04
  • I would say that the future simple indicates a planned period of activity such as a period in a timetable, while the continuous tense indicates 'at any given moment during that time span, that is what you will find me doing'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Apr 2, 2022 at 16:05
  • 2
    The last is rule seems too strict, and the example is a little odd. (if you rest from 5 to 6, then you aren't working the whole evening). It would be correct to say "I'll rest from 5 to 6, but then I'll be working the rest of the evening."
    – James K
    Apr 2, 2022 at 16:06
  • 1
    What it says "When the speaker uses the future continuous tense they show an action as a process, but when the speaker uses the future simple tense they just state a fact of doing the action."
    – James K
    Apr 2, 2022 at 16:27
  • 1
    Yes, The difference are subtle. Shades of meaning rather than "right" and "wrong".
    – James K
    Apr 2, 2022 at 17:11

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .