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  • Hi guys, Dan for BBC Learning English here. This time we're going to talk about five ways

  • to talk about the future without using future tenses. Are you ready? Let's go...

  • So, we can use be + the full infinitive to talk about events in the future. This is kind

  • of formal and commonly happens in newspapers and in the media. Oh! I've just heard that

  • the Queen is to open a new museum tomorrow. You see? Now, we only use this for events

  • which are under human control, so don't say "The weather is to rain tomorrow." You don't

  • have that power and I choose not to use it. If you want to talk about the very near future

  • we can add the word about - so, 'I'm about to go to the shops. Do you want anything?'

  • Got it? Number one done.

  • Number two. We can use 'be due to + the full infinitive'

  • to talk about events that are scheduled to happen in the future. So,

  • for example: 'My plane is due to land at around 5:30 so I'll probably be home about 9:30.'

  • Got it? Number two done.

  • Number three. We...

  • We can talk about our confidence of an event happening in the future using the verb 'be + sure to or bound to'.

  • For example, 'Now that England are out of the football, Germany are bound to win.'

  • Or, 'It's sure to rain tomorrow.' Number three done.

  • Number four. For events that are going to happen very soon we use expressions such

  • as, 'on the verge of' and 'on the brink of'. These are followed by ing verbs or nouns.

  • For example, 'Scientists are on the verge of discovering a cure for cancer.' Or 'People

  • in the city are on the brink of starvation because of a lack of food.'

  • Finally, many verbs are used in the present tense but actually have a future meaning.

  • These are verbs like hope, plan, aim, intend, want and propose. They're always followed by the infinitive.

  • That's number five. Did you get it? Great. See you next time guys. Bye!

Hi guys, Dan for BBC Learning English here. This time we're going to talk about five ways

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