What is going on with the English language? Is it true that I can use the present continuous tense to express a future action? Yes, it is absolutely true and in this English tip, Gabby explains how that is done and what it can look like. If you want to sound like a native English speaker follow this tip and others presented by Go Natural English.

A good example of using the present continuous tense for a future action would be along the lines of, “I am playing with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra next month.” While appearing as the present tense “I am playing”, it actually expresses something that you will be doing next month, and not at the current time. It is always a good idea to add a time frame for this action to avoid confusion and misunderstanding.

Communicating like a native English speaker requires much work, but it should also be fun. Challenge yourself to go beyond textbook English and actually express yourself like a native.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8cI2cdrm0

Episode transcript below:

Hey! What is up, my awesome English learner friend?

I want to share a great tip for English language fluency with you.

A member of the Go Natural English audience, Abdelhalim asked the question, “What about using the present continuous tense to talk about the future”?

Well, that’s a great question because native speakers do this all the time but I don’t think it’s usually mentioned in your English textbooks or in a traditional English classroom.

We usually focus on using “will” for the future tense which is actually probably the least used tense to express the future.

We use “going to” a lot, and then we use the present continuous.

So, for example, I might say, “I’m traveling to Tahiti – I am traveling to Tahiti.”

That doesn’t mean that I’m traveling right now.

It could – it could mean that right now I’m on the plane and I’m traveling to Tahiti.

That would be amazing.

I would love that but it could also mean that in the near future I have plans to travel to Tahiti.

Now, to avoid confusion, most often we will add a time to specify whether we’re talking about right now or the future.

So, if I wanted to talk about the future, I would probably say, “I’m traveling to Tahiti next month” just to clarify.

So, yes, you can absolutely use the present continuous tense to talk about the future but to avoid any confusion I would recommend to add a time to it.

Maybe next month or next week, or this weekend or later today.

So, I hope that this was helpful.

I hope that it helps your confidence in expressing yourself fluently in English.

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Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you again real soon.

Bye for now.

Photo Credit:geralt

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