{"id":7421,"date":"2020-06-30T14:14:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T18:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=7421"},"modified":"2020-06-30T14:14:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T18:14:40","slug":"other-ways-to-express-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/other-ways-to-express-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Other ways to express the future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey there! How are you guys doing this week? It is hard to believe we are already halfway through 2020. But there is still a lot ahead of us and the upcoming weeks will be decisive in many ways, as we witness the unfolding of this year\u2019s defining events, such as a sanitary crisis, racial tensions, political turmoil and economic recession. Sure, times are profoundly uncertain. But we, as humans, cannot help but think about the future and start predicting what life might be like. As you know, in English, the most conventional ways to convey the future tense is by using either <\/span><b>will<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or <\/span><b>be going to<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. There are, of course, other possibilities to indicate that something is going to happen. Whether you are already making plans, daydreaming or would rather simply wait a while to check how the situation plays out wherever you are, today\u2019s post will cover <\/span><b>other ways to express the future <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">so you can discuss the months to come. Shall we?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>BE ABOUT TO + INFINITIVE<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to indicate something will happen in the near future\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meeting is about to start any minute, hurry up!\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The National Research Center <\/span><b>is about to <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">begin its first trials for a vaccine on humans in the coming weeks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I<\/span><b> was about to<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> call you when I got your text, what a coincidence!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>BE LIKELY TO + INFINITIVE<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>to indicate the probability of something happening<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A second wave of contagion <\/span><b>is likely to<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> happen if restrictions are lifted too soon<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists<\/span><b> are not likely<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to come up with a vaccine this year<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As part of the risk group, the elderly <\/span><b>are more likely <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to get infected\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">*note: you can use UNLIKELY when something will probably not happen<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>BE ON THE BRINK\/ VERGE\/ POINT OF<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to indicate that something will happen very soon<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spain\u2019s economy is now<\/span><b> on the verge of <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">bankruptcy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Front-line health workers claim that hospitals <\/span><b>are on the brink of<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> collapse<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kate<\/span><b> was on the point of <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">moving abroad when the borders closed and she had to postpone\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><b>BE BOUND TO + INFINITIVE<\/b><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_7422\" style=\"width: 502px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7422\" class=\" wp-image-7422\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/06\/future-2372183_640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"492\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/06\/future-2372183_640.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/06\/future-2372183_640-350x234.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 492px) 100vw, 492px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7422\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Let&#8217;s use different terms to express the future! (Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay )<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to indicate that something will most certainly happen in the future, high possibility<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reopening schools and economic activities like bars and restaurants <strong>is bound to be<\/strong> a slow, gradual process<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Experts claim that the pandemics <strong>is bound to<\/strong> impact tourism in the short term<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The number of infected people <strong>is bound to<\/strong> increase if restrictions are lifted too early<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><b>BE DUE TO + INFINITIVE<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to indicate that something is planned, scheduled or expected to happen\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Austria <strong>is due to<\/strong> reopen its borders with Germany next week\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Minister of Health <strong>is due to<\/strong> announce his decision at a press conference tomorrow\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Apple\u2019s latest iPhone <strong>is due to<\/strong> be launched by the end of the month\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><b>BE TO + INFINITIVE<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>to indicate official instructions and orders<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the Prime Minister, the government <strong>is to<\/strong> pass new regulations soon<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The board decided that employees <strong>are not to<\/strong> leave home office until further notice<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Foreigners <strong>are not to<\/strong> enter the country without valid justification<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I hope you enjoyed these alternatives to discussing the future in English. <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And remember, the important thing is to stay calm and remain positive!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"234\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/06\/future-2372183_640-350x234.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/06\/future-2372183_640-350x234.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/06\/future-2372183_640.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Hey there! How are you guys doing this week? It is hard to believe we are already halfway through 2020. But there is still a lot ahead of us and the upcoming weeks will be decisive in many ways, as we witness the unfolding of this year\u2019s defining events, such as a sanitary crisis, racial&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/other-ways-to-express-the-future\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":7422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[135139,135370],"tags":[536755,536756,536758,532511,71,536757],"class_list":["post-7421","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-language","category-english-vocabulary","tag-be-due-to","tag-bound-to","tag-expressing-future","tag-future-in-english","tag-future-tense","tag-likely"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7423,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7421\/revisions\/7423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}