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Almost all my friends say "I will be coming tomorrow" to refer that they are coming tomorrow. Why don't they say "I will come tomorrow"?

(Note that they are not saying like "will be coming tomorrow when you watch football". They do not prefer any time or situations, simply "I will be coming/calling".)

I know that "will come" is simple future and "will be coming" is future continuous.

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  • Native speakers might actually prefer I'm coming tomorrow. Both statements with the progressive simply refer to the activity as having duration. But we'll also say I'll come tomorrow and I come tomorrow. These are all valid expressions. Jun 4, 2016 at 13:19
  • At least in British English, "I will be coming..." is more polite and less decisive. "I will come tomorrow" implies either that it is important or essential that I come soon, or that it is important or essential that you rearrange your plans for tomorrow so that you will be free to meet me when I come. Other languages and/or cultures may express this differently. For example some of my European work colleagues (speaking English) will say "Tomorrow we shall do X" when a Brit would say "I think it would be a good plan if we did X tomorrow - do you agree?"
    – alephzero
    Jun 4, 2016 at 18:26

2 Answers 2

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If an activity is a process or takes a long duration of time, expressing it with continuous tenses seems natural.

I will be coming tomorrow.

The act of "coming" here is taking a long time from the speaker/writer's point of view. One example where this would apply is if by "coming" the speaker/writer means the entire process of planning, packing, lining up travel, and actually traveling for a vacation.

I will come tomorrow.

Here, the act of "coming" is not a process or is relatively simple - perhaps the speaker/writer simply has to hop in a car and drive down the street or walk next door.

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  • Give me an answer with following example. A) ( on phone) hello, is this B? C) no he/she is in another call, B will be calling you after the call.
    – Joann
    Jun 4, 2016 at 12:43
  • See @JavaLatte's answer. It's the better answer, too.
    – LawrenceC
    Jun 4, 2016 at 15:03
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Future continuous isn't necessarily about continuous activity, and does not imply that the activity will take place at the same time as anything else. It can be used in several ways:

  • to project ourselves into the future
  • for predicting or guessing about future events
  • to ask politely for information about the future
  • to refer to continuous events that we expect to happen in the future
  • When combined with still, the future continuous refers to events that are already happening now and that we expect to continue some time into the future

I think that your example fits into the first category- projecting oneself into the future. Here are some other examples:

This time next week I will be sun-bathing in Bali.

By Christmas I will be skiing like a pro.

Just think, next Monday you will be working in your new job

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