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The future tense, just as the past and present tenses, has four main components that make up the whole tense. The future tense is slightly more complex than the past and present tenses because it can use the present simple and present continuous forms to express future meanings; additionally there is a seventh form, which is the "'to be' + going + infinitive" form. Some of these forms can become confusing among each other. For example expressing a future meaning with the present continuous can look like this, "I am going for a run in the morning when I wake up." This sentence could easily be confused with the "going to" form, which could look something like "I am going to go for a run in the morning." The key difference between the two is that the "going to" form will always have another verb, in the infinitive form, following the word "going". For this reason it is important to understand the structure of each form and how they might carry different meanings. The present continuous with future meaning can sound more definitive in tone than the "going to" form.
Similarly, the future perfect and future perfect continuous should be handled with extra care. They both use past participles in their form, which may seem strange when talking about the future. They are important because they have their place in the English language to express when a certain action will be completed by (future perfect) and to express how long an action will have continued by a certain time (future perfect continuous). An example where students might get confused between the two might look like this "I will have been to Canada twice by next month." This sentence is in the future perfect tense, as it follows the form subject + will + have + past participle, but the past participle being used is the word "been" which is part of the future perfect continuous structure. An important thing to point out to avoid confusion between the two, is that the future perfect continuous (form subject + will + have + been +verb+ing), will always have an -ing verb following the word "been".
The future simple, future continuous, and "be going to" forms are each used to make predictions. Each form has a specific place in the conversation depending on the context. The future simple is used to make predictions which are not based on current evidence. For example "I think my wife will arrive soon." Whereas the "be going to" form is used to make predictions which are based on current evidence. For example "It looks like your team is going to win the football game." The future continuous is used to predict or guess at a present on going situation. For example "My cousin will likely be sleeping right now, so I won't call her."
The present simple with future meaning is generally used to convey a more formal or impersonal tone about a future event. For example "my boss leaves on his business trip to Hong Kong tomorrow".
While the different forms of the future tense may seem complex, the first four are a mirror of their counterparts in the past and present tenses. Each form of the future tense has its place in the English language, which can be understood through careful explanation and practice.
