Future Time Expressions Practice- Giving Advice and Recommendations

Giving advice/ recommendations future time expressions practice

Choose one of the future times below and explain a situation related to it that needs advice/ recommendations, using the phrases and/ or topics below to help if you like. Listen to your partner’s advice/ recommendations and respond positively or negatively depending on what you think about what they say.

 

Useful language for explaining the situations

• I feel…
• (My… has told me that) I have to…
• I need to…
• I want to achieve…
• I want to…
• I’d like to…
• I’m planning to…
• I’ve been set a target of…
• My (main) ambition/ goal is to…
• My boss/ section/ company/ industry will probably…
• My New Year resolution is to…
• The deadline for… is…
• There is a…

 

Suggested topics

• Career
• Crime
• Food and drink
• Free time/ Hobbies
• Giving things up
• Health
• Hospitality/ Socialising
• Travel
• Trying something new

 

Suggested times

• At… o’clock (in the morning/ in the afternoon/ in the evening/ at night) (today/ on… day/ on the …th of…)
• By… o’clock (today/ on… day/ on the …th of…)
• Later (today)
• This evening
• Tonight
• By the close of business (tonight/ on Friday)
• Tomorrow (morning/ afternoon/ evening/ night)
• The day after tomorrow
• On Monday/ Tuesday/ …day
• On the first/ second/ third/ fourth/..th (of…)
• By …day
• In two days/ three days/ … days
• Within two days/ three days/ … days
• Later this week/ this month/ this year
• At the end of this week/ this month/ this year
• At the beginning of…
• In the middle of…
• By the end of this week/ this month/ this year
• Next week/ month/ year
• The week after next/ The month after next/ The year after next
• In… weeks/ months/ years
• Within … weeks/ months/ years
• In January/ February/…
• In (the year) 2020/ 20…
• In the 2020s/ the 2030s/ the 20…s
• Before I retire/ Before…
• After I retire/ After…
• In the near future
• In the distant future
• Someday/ Sometime/ One day

 

Useful questions for asking for advice/ recommendations

• Can you suggest anything?
• Do you have any ideas?
• Do you have any recommendations?
• Do you know any suitable…?
• What do you recommend?
• What do you think I should do?
• What would you do (in my place/ in that situation/ if you were in my shoes)?

 

Useful phrases for responding to advice/ suggestions

• Of course. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that myself.
• That’s a great idea. I’ll definitely do that./ That’s an excellent suggestion. I’ll do exactly what you said.
• That seems like a good idea. I’ll give it a try.
• You are probably right. I’ll give it a go.
• That’s not a bad idea. I’ll try my best to do that.
• That might be worth thinking about.
• That might work. I’ll consider it.
• I’m not so sure that’s a good idea (because…)/ I’m not sure that would work (in this case) (because…) Can you suggest anything else?
• Are you sure (that’s a good idea)? Don’t you think that…?
• Do you really think so? I would have thought that…
• Actually, … already. (Do you have any other ideas?)

Share one recommendation from your partner and see how other students respond to it.

Ask about anything above that you don’t understand, working together to make suitable example sentences each time.

Without looking above, brainstorm time expressions that match the grammar in each column below. Many more expressions not above are also possible. 

at +	on +	in +	no preposition +

Put these expressions above to make future time expressions with those prepositions:

• … o’clock
• 2050
• February
• Friday
• January
• later (today)
• Monday
• next week
• next year
• night
• one day/ someday/ sometime
• the 2020s
• the afternoon
• the beginning of this month
• the day after tomorrow
• the distant future
• the end of this week
• the evening
• the first of January
• the middle of February
• the morning
• the near future
• the second
• the week after next
• the year 2020
• this evening
• three weeks
• today
• tomorrow
• tomorrow morning
• tonight
• two days

Work out what kind of preposition these kinds of expressions take and use that to help check your answers:

• (clock) times
• other points in time such as beginnings
• days and dates
• longer periods of time such as months and years
• “night”
• expressions with “this”, “next” and “last”, and similar expressions like “today”
• a certain time after now/ a length of time

Check your answers on the first two pages, check these categories.

Change group. Use just this page to ask for and give advice, this time without any help. You can repeat things from the previous round if you can remember it if you like.