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Member
Picture of BobHale
posted
The what do you think thread set me to thinking about ways of expressing a future event in English. Boy there are plenty of them, aren't there?

Here are the ones I've come up with so far - including ones that use auxialliary verbs or have slightly different shades of meaning.

I will go on Tuesday.
I shall go on Tuesday.
I will be going on Tuesday.
I shall be going on Tuesday.
I go on Tuesday.
I am going on Tuesday.
I am going to go on Tuesday.
I will have gone on Tuesday.
I intend (hope/expect) to go on Tuesday.
I intend (hope/expect) that I shall go on Tuesday.
I intend (hope/expect) that I should go on Tuesday.
It is my intention (hope/expectation) that I shall (will/should) go on Tuesday.

Now all I need to come up with is a way of explaining to my students that all of those are more or less the same in meaning and how and why the various subtle differences arise.

Another question for anyone who cares to put in the effort is: what is the most complicated set of verbs and auxilliary verbs that can be used in a correctly formed, grammatical sentence?

I'll give an example, though I'm sure there must be more complicated ones.

By September I will have had to have been working all Summer if I want to pay off the loan on the car.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Picture of jheem
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These periphrastic verbal forms are why I think it's bogus to talk about Latin or Russian being more difficult than English or Chinese because the former have a more extensive set of inflectional forms.

How about:

I must go by/on Thursday.
I have/ought to go by/on Thursday.
I can leave when I went/need to.
 
Posts: 1218 | Location: CaliforniaReply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of Kalleh
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How elucidating, Bob. I would never have thought there so many ways. Also:

I need to leave by Thursday.
My deadline for leaving is Thursday.
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
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Bob Hale: "By September I will have had to have been working all Summer ..."

Or "By September I will have seemed to have had to have been working ..."?

[wordnerd, standing on the shoulders of giants]
 
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