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The seven most common future tenses are the future simple, the future continuous, the future perfect, the future perfect continuous, be going + infinitive, the present simple, and the present continuous. The future simple may be the easiest future tense to understand. The positive form of the future simple takes a subject ( I, you, he, she, it, we, they) + will + a verb. The negative form takes a subject + will not/shall not. The question form is shall/ will I? Will you? etc. The future simple is used when stating future facts and certainties, promises, predictions (based on no present evidence), assumptions/speculations, spontaneous decisions, and threats. The future continuous tense takes the form of a subject + will + be + the present participle (a verb +ing). The positive form of the future continuous is thus shown in the sentence, "We'll be praying for you." For the negative form use the word "won't" after the subject. One way in which the future continuous is used is to talk about predicted or planned events that start at some unspecified time in the future and continue to occur at a given time in the future. As an example sentence, "This time next week I'll be flying on a jet to Paris." The future perfect tense takes the form of a subject + will + have + the past participle. The positive form of the future perfect is thus shown in the sentence, " I will have suffered this cold for four weeks." The future perfect is used to look at events or actions from a point in the future after we expect the event or action to have already finished. The future perfect is often accompanied by a time phrase. As an example sentence, "I will have finished my exams by the end of the year." The future perfect continuous is formed with will + have + been + the present participle. It is used to say how long something will have continued by a certain time. An example sentence would be, "My family will have been living in Virginia for 24 years this coming April." The future perfect continuous often includes an adverbial expression that begins with "by". For example, "By next week I will have been working on this course for more than a month" or "By this time tomorrow we will have been playing golf for two hours." The be going + infinitive is formed by the verb 'to be' in the present + going to + the base form of a verb. This tense is often confused with the present continuous tense, especially when the present continuous form uses the verb 'to go'. The difference is that the 'be going to' structure is always followed by a verb. It is used to declare intentions, make predictions based on present evidence, and for plans (decisions made before speaking). The present simple tense has several usages. One is to suggest a more formal situation such as, "The new mall opens next month." The present simple can also be used for timetables and schedules as in, "The flight to Los Angeles leaves from gate 6 at 10:30 am." One last way the present simple can be used is to suggest a more impersonal tone. For example, "We leave tomorrow on our vacation." The present continuous tense is used for referring to solid arrangements or plans. For example, "Next Monday we're staying at a five-star hotel" (it's implied that the reservation has already been made). The present continuous can also be used to refer to decisions or plans without a time frame, to events that have not even started yet. In this unit I learned that expressing the future tense in English is particularly complicated because not only are there many forms to choose from, but also because the distinction between them is not always clear.