Expressing Future Plans/Activities

Talking about Future Plans/Activities

This topic enables students to express and talk about future plans or activities at school, home, street, market, shop, hospital etc situations. Talking about future plans/activities is normally done using words and expressions such as ‘will’, ‘shall’, ‘next’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘are going’ to’, ‘about to’, and infinitives such as can, may, could, should, would, might, etc.

Expressing Future Plans

Express future plans

There are four common ways to talk about future activities

• Future simple tense (I will do)
• Future progressive (I’ll be doing)
• Present continuous tense (I am doing)
• Present simple tense (I do)

Example 1

• I shall decorate my house.
• I will do it today.
• She will talk to me.
• I shall phone him at his office.
• He will be flying home on Sunday.
• Jane will write a letter to her mother.

Be + to infinitive

• We are to be married soon.
• She is to be regarded as politician.
• You are to be back by 10 o’clock.

Be about + to infinitive

• We are about to leave Morogoro.
• She is about to complete her studies.
• They are about to visit us.

Be + v- ing + to infinitive

• They are going to see the headmaster.
• I am going to see a doctor tomorrow.
• They are going to eat rice today.
• We are going to wash our clothes tomorrow.
• My aunt is coming tonight.
• We are leavingnext week for Nachingwea.

The use of may, might, can, could, should

• I would like to declare the meeting open.
• We may help you next mouth.
• They should go to school easily.
• He could do his exams next month.

Talking about future plan/activities

Future is atime that express an action or activity that will happen in the future. Many events can be recorded in the calendar, papers, radio, recorder etc. There are many ways to express future time, like modal auxiliary verbs. Future time can be indicated by adverbs of time, like ‘tomorrow’ and ‘next time.’

Activity 1

Use the verbs below to express future plans using a school calendar

(Read, write, play, travel, declare, eat, wash, cleaning, run, study, cook, chrome)

Exercise 1

Complete the following statements. Change the verb in brackets and use WILL/SHALL

1. When it gets dark, we ………. (Light) the lamps
2. Madhavi……… (be) here in few minutes. Who…….. (Welcome) him.
3. What do you think……….. (happen) when you mix hydrogen and oxygen?
4. The Serengeti boys………(leave) for Zambia on Monday
5. They…….. (play) against their opponents at the new Lusaka.
6. Tom………. You……..(come)to school on Saturday?
7. Your parents calledme. They……… (arrive)
8. If you go with this kind of wife, you………. certainly………. (die)
9. To stop the spread of desert, they……… (need) to plant more bushes and trees.
10. We all want to pass our exams sowe………… (study) hard.