Interesting enough, in grammar books for young students, it is general idea that we have Future Tense:
Ex: Future tense show that an action is going to happen. Will and Shall always indicate future tense.
http://www.somge.com/english/grammar/verbs/tenses/future.htm
== Examples are absolutely frequent.
However, when students have evolved to linguists or deep thinkers, they take it for granted that there is no Future Tense:
Ex: the authors state: "...there is no future tense in English... there are two tenses in English: present and past. ...but nothing that we can describe as future tense" thus repeating the well known point of view formulated by O. Jespersen and other representatives of American Descriptive Linguistics.
http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/issues/12/12-1562.html
Ex: Consequently, there is no future tense in English, even though there are, of course, many different ways in which we can talk about the future time:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~mpalande/meaning_of_tense_and_aspect.html
Actually, I want to make clear what is the general idea of English native speakers about Future Tense. Is there Future Tense or not?
I will do it
I will be doing it
I am going to do it
I will have done it by monday (e.g)
How do you think,what is this ? Past tense ? No. Present Tense ? No.
It is Future Tense.Did I make myself clear ?
I agree with "The One."
English may not have a verb only future tense like the Romance languages...
for example in Portuguese:
Eu falarei com o meu pai. (I will speak to my father)
Eu irei para Portugal. (I will go to Portugal)
....however, this doesn't mean there isn't a "future tense." The sentence "I will speak to my father" doesn't convey something that happened in the past, present, or a conditional that could happen. It is something that will happen in the future.
I am English. Take it from me, there is no future in English. And England's dreaming. Noooooooooo future. Noooooooooo future. Noooooooo future for me. No future. No future for you.
Yeah, there is a future tense in English; it is just formed using two words instead of one word like in the Romance languages.
By using the logic in the first post, the French language would not have a past tense because there are two words that make up the tense.
avoir + past participle = past tense
(je) ai + mangé = (I) ate/(I) had eaten
But, this does not mean French does not have a past tense. This just means that French, English, and all languages, have different ways of constructing the same things.
Did The One make him/herself clear?
I will do it
I will be doing it
I am going to do it
I will have done it by monday (e.g)
What is this?
Past tense? No.
Present Tense? ... Maybe ...
The words "will" and "am" are in the simple present tense.
Is there a future tense in English?
It's not a question that can so easily be brushed aside.
I tend to think there isn't but I'm no expert.
God save the Queen,
The facist regime,
We love our Queen ...
I'm very tense right now and I will still be tense later.
According to TS' link
http://www.helsinki.fi/~mpalande/meaning_of_tense_and_aspect.html
"I will still be tense later." would just be the present tense with the modal auxiliary "will".
I don't think the question can that easily be dismissed.
Clark argues "By using the logic in the first post, the French language would not have a past tense because there are two words that make up the tense ... But, this does not mean French does not have a past tense."
Now, I hardly know any French. Whether or not it has a past tense I don't know. But what if Clark is wrong and this does indeed mean that French does not have a past tense? Or what if that is not what this logic is saying at all? I don't know.
I'd hardly dispute that "French, English, and all languages, have different ways of constructing the same things." However, what if, in English, the way of constructing a sentence/clause/question/etc. about the future is not by using tense but by using other things like modal auxiliary verbs?
The question is what is tense?
The question is "What is tense?"
I knew that one day someone would use the Sex Pistol´s lyrics to explain grammar.
Anarchy in the Uuukay kay !!
Let the grammar fascists ascend!
Perhaps they are thinking of Japanese, German and Dutch.
'Will' is a modal verb, which means it can change the meaning of a sentence, give it a different sense.
'Will' is a modal verb, which means it can change the meaning of a sentence, give it a different sense.
I open the window every morning. This sentence talks about a habitual action.
It's so hot.
OK, I'll open the window. This is a spontaneous decision, made at the time of speaking.
Will can also be used for predictions, promises, etc.
Going to can be used to express a decision made before speaking, and also to express a prediction about something that we can see is going to happen.
Present continuous can express future arrangements, and present simple is used with a future meaning when we talk about time-tables, starting times of concerts, movies, etc.
It doesn't really matter if we can say that there is a future tense or not, in my opinion. What's important is that we can express all sorts of different ideas about the future by using the tools available. What we choose will all depend of what exactly we want to say.
will is a modal verb, which means that it can change the meaning of a sentence, like - can, could, may, might, should etc.
Hope this helps.-
Sorry about the repetition. I'm quite a beginner on the computer, so sometimes strange things happen.
There are grammatical constructions for future time reference in English but there are only two tenses-past and present.