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Latest post Tue, Apr 21 2009 3:27 PM by Philip. 2 replies.
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Anonymous  +  699682 Tue, 21 Apr 09 09:27 AM
Hi there,


I was asked to describe my typical working day. It's undoubtly that I should use PRESENT SIMPLE, like:

In the afternoon my boss normally holds a meeting. Then in the meeting he reviews our works.


However, I want to know if it is absolutely no problem  to use 'will' to show the order of these sentences, like:

In the afternoon my boss normally holds a meeting. In the meeting he will review our works.


I'm a little confused because in this situation, 'review our works' happens after some point which does not refer to a specific time(it is a typical working day in the past or future).



regards.


CF

Best answer by Mr Wordy  +  699712 Tue, 21 Apr 09 12:57 PM
In the afternoon my boss normally holds a meeting. Then in the meeting he reviews our work.

 

The tenses here are correct. Events that typically happen are "timeless" and when you're writing about them you should use the present tense throughout. You should not switch tenses in an attempt to match the order in which the events happen.

 

It is possible to use "will" when describing typical events, but this is a rather unusual style that does not seem appropriate to your sentence. An example would be someone describing their routine like this: "Most days I'll [= "I will"] take the kids to school and then do the shopping. In the afternoon I'll sit down and watch some TV."  However, in this usage the word "will" does not indicate the future tense. Instead, it acts as a kind of tenseless indicator of the habitual. I don't recommend that you worry about this too much, and if you find it too confusing then just ignore it.

Best answer by Philip  +  699743 Tue, 21 Apr 09 03:27 PM
I don't know of any other language that interchange tenses the way English does.  We use 'will' to express everyday actions, as you have here.  We also use 'would' instead of 'used to' in the past.  A non-native speaker has great problems in understanding the meanings, when a tense other than what is expected is used.  This is especially difficult for students whose native languages don't even have verb tenses!

 

 

 

The advice already given is good:  don't worry too much about it when you come across it and can identify as one of these quirks of English.  My further advice: don't do it yourself until you've truly mastered the tenses.

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