Future Things in Common

Future things in common

Future forms review/ Future time expressions review

Try to find future things in common with your partner by telling them about your future plans, goals, etc in the short and long term. If you are scoring, you get one point for each time your partner says “Me too” etc, but no points if they say “Really? In my case,…” etc.

Useful language for talking about similarities “Me too.”/ “So am I.”/ “So will I.”/ “So might I.”/ “So do I.”/ “So would I.”/ “Like you…” “Me neither.”/ “Neither am I.”/ “Neither will I.”/ “Neither do I.”/ “Neither would I.” Useful language for asking the other person “How about you?”/ “What about you?” “I guess that you are/ do/ will/ would too” Useful language for talking about differences “Really? I…”/ “(That’s interesting.) (Actually) In my case,…”/ “Unlike you…”

 

Suggested topics

• accommodation
• ambitions/ goals/ targets
• appearance/ your look (hair, clothes, weight, etc)
• appointments (doctor, dentist, etc)
• arrangements (= something already fixed with someone else)
• arts and media (TV, movies, books, etc)
• bookings/ reservations/ tickets
• career
• celebrations/ festivals
• clubs/ societies
• education/ studies (exams, qualifications, lessons, etc)
• finance/ money (savings, investments, etc)
• food and drink (cooking, eating out, etc)
• free time/ leisure
• health and fitness
• holidays/ vacations/ travel/ tourism (foreign holidays, business trips, etc)
• (major) life changes/ life events (marriage, having kids, etc)
• meetings
• new experiences
• New Year’s resolutions
• predictions (= your imagination of the future)
• (big) purchases
• relationships (friends, family, dating, etc)
• retirement
• social life/ socialising (parties, etc)
• technology (social media, etc)
• to do lists

Do the same, but this time using at least one word from the table on the next page. You can use words from more than one column if you want to, but just one word from one column is okay. Still make sure that you are finding things in common about the future.

Future verb forms	Future actions	Future times (with prepositions)
have arranged to ’m are …ing have decided to ’m are going to ’m not going to ’m planning to plan to ’m thinking about intend to don’t intend to ’ll be…ing ’ll have + PP ’ll (definitely) ’ll almost certainly ’ll probably may well/ might well may/ might could possibly probably won’t (definitely) won’t ’m expecting ’m looking forward to ’m are dreading want to don’t want to would like to would love to would hope	attend book/ reserve buy cancel carry on celebrate change continue cook cut (down)/ decrease do (more/ less) enjoy forget get rid of give away go to ignore improve increase learn look for make meet memorise move quit read retire save see sell spend money on spend time on start stop study suffer from take up throw away try visit work	after this class in an hour later (today) this evening tonight at… (o’clock) (today) tomorrow morning this time tomorrow tomorrow afternoon tomorrow evening tomorrow night the day after tomorrow in three days within five (working) days on Saturday on …day by the end of this week this time next week in the middle of next week on Friday next week in two weeks next month this winter in December (this year) next year this time next year next summer the year after next in the near future before I retire until I retire in 2050 by 2050 in 20… in 21… for a long time someday/ sometime/ one day

Share similarities that you found with the class and see if anyone else shares the same thing. Then ask about anything on either page which you don’t understand or couldn’t use, trying to find related things in common each time.

Brainstorming stage

Without looking above, write as many examples as you can in each column:

Future verb forms/ Future tenses	Future times (with prepositions)

Compare your answers with the previous page.

What are the differences between the different forms above?

 

Differences between future forms presentation

All the expressions below are at least slightly different from each other. With a partner, try to explain the differences in meaning.

• am meeting him/ am going to meet him/ will meet him
• will almost certainly improve/ will probably improve
• will have changed/ will be changing
• may well disappear/ may disappear
• could appear/ could possibly appear
• am expecting to arrive…/ am looking forward to arriving
• would like to/ would love to
• want to/ hope to
• will/ would
• will rain/ is going to rain
• “We need some milk” “Don’t worry, I’ll get some from the supermarket”/ “We need some milk” “Don’t worry, I’m going to get some from the supermarket”
• on Monday/ by Monday
• in three days/ within three days
• in three days/ in the next three days
• in a couple of weeks/ in a few weeks
• in a year/ a year later
• within five days/ within five working days
• in 2020/ by 2020
• by 2020/ before 2020
• by 2020/ until 2020
• later/ sometime
• in 2030/ in the 2030s
• this evening/ tonight

Ask about any which you couldn’t explain or aren’t sure about.