Present Progressive for future
This is a post I hope my grammar god friend will look at and comment. Today I was doing a lesson in one of my many many books at my school in Nishinomiya. The lesson topic was "What are you doing tomorrow?". Now when I worked at Nova and ECC their textbooks always taught going to .... for future. ECC also had a lesson where they had both and explained the difference (wish I had that explanation). In my view , using the present progressive makes the statement more concrete. "I am playing tennis tomorrow." would be 明日間違いなくテニスをするつもりです。" and then "I am going to play tennis tomorrow" would be ”明日テニスをするつもりです” but I am not sure. I always recommend students use going to as the present progressive does not always seem to work as in I am watching T.V. later tonight. Sometimes being in Japan so long and thinking too much about the grammar can drive a person crazy. Anybody got an opinion I would love to hear it on this one. I wait for the experts to reply.
Labels: grammar
posted by Floyd at
4:35 AM
2 Comments:
My grammar book ( Lott, H. (2005) Real English Grammar. London: Marshall Cavendish ELT.) says that the present coninuous is used for arrangements:
"Mr. Hall is teaching the international studies class next semester."
or
personal plans:
"Floyd is coming to Tokyo next week"
Be going to is used for
intentions:
"I'm going to try to play some tennis tomorrow."
Expectations:
"I think I'm going to get fired"
Predictions based on evidence:
"That ball is going to break the window"
So I think your Japanese explanation is ok.
Cool thanks. It is very confusing for students because I am sure they learned in school that -ing is used for smthing that is happenign right now. It is one of those things that I know I was using correctly in my own speech but was a pain in the neck to explain becuase obviously I had never thought about it.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home