Future tenses

Share on Facebook

PhillipK

#510553 Tue, 06 May 08 10:14 PM

Julie is going to be 16 next week. / Julie will be 16 next week.

> I think both are possible. But is there a difference in meaning?

__

When does it start? 17:00 but my car has broken down. I will have it repaired sometime next week./ I am going to have it repaired sometime next week.
> What do you think is correct? I think both again. The meaning is different,though. In the first sentence she/he has the car at a service department and is waiting, while in the second sentence she's planing on having it repaired.

What do you think? Thank you!

PhillipK

Joined on Tue, May 6 2008

Czech

New Member (03)

future tenses

Cool Breeze

#510562 Tue, 06 May 08 10:57 PM

Hello PhillipK

Welcome! Does the K stand for "King"? All your sentences are correct. I can detect no actual difference in meaning between the last two. Or the first two either, for that matter.

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,543)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

CalifJim

#510564 Tue, 06 May 08 11:02 PM

Both are possible in both cases.

Starting with the last one, I'll have it repaired reports a decision -- likely an on-the-spot decision; I'm going to have it repaired reports a plan. So I think you've got the basic idea on that one.

In the first case, no decision or plan is involved (obviously), so it's more a difference between a mathematically cold recital of the fact (will be 16) and a warmer, friendlier sharing of a fact (going to be 16).

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (15,997)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Difference between

MrPedantic

#510565 Tue, 06 May 08 11:06 PM

1. Julie is going to be 16 next week.
2. Julie will be 16 next week.

For some reason, to me, #1 has a slightly more excited air than #2. Thus (e.g.) I would expect to see #1 in a magazine with a readership of teenage girls, in a not very serious article; while #2 might turn up in a serious newspaper's item on teenage pregnancies.

(Not that I read the not very serious articles in magazines with a readership of teenage girls.)

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (11,852)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Articles

PhillipK

#510577 Tue, 06 May 08 11:23 PM

Thanks CB. Well the answer is yes and no. It was not intended as PhilipKing but my last name is König (=king in German - although I am not one and I don't even speak German I suppose I have/had relatives of German origin) so I don't want it to sound like I think of me as a king:))
take care

PhillipK