Some  say   Sometimes, speakers use the Present Continuous to indicate  that something will or will not happen in the near future.  Examples:  I am meeting some friends after work. I am not going to the party tonight. Is he visiting his parents next weekend? Isn't he coming with us tonight?    say:  The present continuous is used to talk about arrangements for  events at a time later than now.  There is a suggestion that more than one person is  aware of the event, and that some preparation has already happened. e.g.  I'm meeting Jim at the airport = Jim and I have discussed this. I am leaving tomorrow. = I've already bought my train ticket. We're having a staff meeting next Monday = all members of staff have been told about it.   I think the second one makes more senses.  But my question is that:  Is present continuous tense only used for future arrangements? &amp; If there is no future arrangement then we can not use present continuous tense right?  See this example,  "I am seeing my mom this afternoon" could mean "My mom &amp; I have agreed to meet each other before"  "I am going to see my mom this afternoon" could mean "I've got a plan to see my mom, but my mom may not know it she &amp; I have not arranged a meeting yet"   "I will see my mom this afternoon": "Will" in this case expresses a Voluntary Action. I'm willing to see my mom.  "I am going to the beach this afternoon" could mean I agreed with myself that I am going to go to the beach this afternoon &amp; I prepared stuffs (swimming suits, sun scream, etc) for that.
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I am reading  about present continuous.  As the writer states     USE 3 Near Future   Sometimes, speakers use the Present Continuous to indicate that something will or will not happen in the near future.   Examples:   I am meeting some friends after work. I am not going to the party tonight. Is he visiting his parents next weekend? Isn't he coming with us tonight? "     The lesson says:  Sometimes, speakers use the Present Continuous...   My question is when are these "sometimes"?
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Do in future and in the future imply different meanings? If so, using which one is grammatically correct?
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I took this photo by the lake last Saturday, Grandma. It looks lovely.   Do you know any of these people?      Yes, I do. The man who’s reading the newspaper is William.      He’s wearing a nice hat.      He is, isn’t he? Grandpa knows him, I think!   Why don't they say "he was wearing a nice hat" because that was happening in the past?  Can we use the present tense to describe people in a video?  For example, "Look at you in this video! You are smiling and swimming in a bathtub".
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Are there difference between those sentences?        Alex is getting married next month.     Alex will get married next month.      Seems that the first one is expressed in present continues, and the second on in future tense. Am I correct?
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Do you think that "was going to be" or "would be" could be used as past tense of will?     I thought this book was going to be your choice.        I thought this book would be your choice.   Do these two sentences basically mean the same thing or are they slightly different?
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"These days" express the period around now. Then, I wonder, why is used the Present Simple in the following sentence?:   These days I travel a lot.  I’m spending more and more time away from home. (Considering the rule given above, I would say: These days I am travelling a lot.)   I've also come across the sentence where both  tenses are considered correct:   These days, more and more people prefer / are preferring to retire    early.   So, is it optional whether we use present simple or continuous with "these days"?
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In a phone conversation like the one below is the present perfect form "I've thought it was Frank on the line" acceptable instead of "thought"?      Matt: Hi John.   John: Hi Frank.   Matt: Oh, this is Matt speaking not Frank.   John: Sorry Matt. I thought it was Frank on the line. You sound very similar.   John's mixing up the voices happens in very recent past (seconds ago) and it has relevance with the present. Why do we generally prefer simple past tense when using the verb "think" in such contexts? In British English present perfect is used commonly for recent past actions and events such as "have told", "has said", "has happened", "have shown" etc. Does it sound natural to use present perfect in such phone conversation context? Can you explain please any linguistic differences?
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I wrote this to my friends a few days ago: (1) It used to take 5 seconds for me to reach Youtube, now it only took me 2 seconds to do it.  I used "now" to refer to the moment when I installed a faster connection hardware. I come up with this question, because I think the use of "now" in sentence 1 is informal and it is like a colloquial conversation. I am sorry my friends. Back in those days I was taught (by my English teachers, non-native speaker) that now must use in present tense, so the use of now sometimes confuses me.
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Why do we use the simple past but not the present or future in the following expressions:  Don't you think it's time we went a little further Don't you think it's time we ate Don't you think it's time we went home
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I learned that the historical present may be used to create an effect of immediacy in narratives. I have a question about the historic present tense. Why don't we use the progressive tense instead of the simple present tense?   ※My English skill is poor, so my question might sound rude. But I don't mean to offend anyone. I'd be glad if someone could reply to my question.
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Can present progressive statements be use at present or for the future? or both?
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I am now reading  book and have noticed a couple of cases of weird (for non-native speaker) future tense usages.   The point of the kata is to train your fingers and your brain. I'll do a kata or two every day, often as part of settling to work. I might do it in Java, or in Ruby, or in Clojure, or in some other language for which I want to maintain my skills.`   The phrase about doing a kata or two every day looks perfect for Present Simple. Why does the authoer use Future Simple instead?   However, a professional also knows that there will be times when he will fail, his risk calculations will be wrong, his abilities will fall short; he'll look in the mirror and see an arrogant fool smiling back at him.   Shouldn't we use Present Simple after when/if in this kind of cases? I am especially curious about this case as sometimes I forget to switch to Present Simple after if/when and I thought it is a critical error (which I didn't expect to see in a book).
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I have a question about the usage of the future perfect thingy: I know that it is used to talk about a completed action before a time in future, but is it wrong to use just plain future simple in this same case?   For example, can we use      I will finish all my money by the end of the week.   instead of      I will have finished all my money by the end of the week?   Do native speakers follow this rule in their speaking?
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I know that in the following sentences "If I had known" has to be used in the place of "If I knew" to form the grammatically right sentences. What I really want be sure of is that as a native if all the 3 examples given below sound natural to you though or do you find it odd using it that way and so on? cause I've come across this to be used that way pretty often and it makes me wonder.  Please mention sequences of verb tenses in your responds too..(e.g, In the first example Subject wishes to be informed of the object's coming as s/he was on the way. looks like same time action)        If I knew you were coming, I would've arrived from work earlier    If I knew you would/were gonna come, I would've arrived from work earlier   If I knew you had come, I would've arrived from work earlier
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The simple present is used to make statements about events at a time later than now, when the statements are based on present facts, and when these facts are something fixed like a time-table, schedule, calendar.    Firstly, What "when the statements are based on present facts" does mean?  Secondly, Is the following sentence follow the above rules? or isn't it grammatically correct?     I start my course at university next month.   or should I say:     I will start my course ...
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A student has written:     Still, I have already been aware of most of the information even    before watching the video.   It doesn't feel right and I would normally use a past simple here. I'm on my two hundredth script and losing my ability to reason, or to adequately explain to myself why it should be past simple (I think it's 'before' as this puts the time as completed, so he can't use the present perfect notion of unfinished time). What I need to know is:   Should it be simple past of present perfect here, or doesn't it matter?  Why/why not?   All help gratefully received.
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Recently I asked about   I shall come, not will  whether it could be used instead of  I will definitely come, not maybe  How I came to such a question.  Here   I asked about "Shall I win?" pointing that it could have some variants of understanding:  1) Shall I win? = Should I win? (suggestion)  2) Shall I win? = Will I win? (archaic with 1st person)  3) Shall I win? = is it 100% that I will win? (predestination\inevitability)  The excellent guy Mixolydian said either variant was possible, that it didn't matter what person you used "shall" with, it could have this "predestination\inevitability" anyway. Out of this we're getting that nowadays we can use "will" for simple future actions and "shall" for almost predicted (almost 100% surety of happening) future actions.  If I want to say to someone:  Don't be afraid, I will come anyway.  Don't get panicked, I will definitely come  Be sure, I will come in any case  I can use "shall" for it meanining an action into which I will put 100% effort:  I shall come!  And what if my original sentence is  Don't doubt, I will definitely come, not maybe or probably  Can I use  I shall come, not will  pointing that "shall" guarantees me putting all my strengths into it while "will" doesn't give any assuarance that I will do everything to finally come.  As I understood, it wasn't very easy to ask such a question because English was different everywhere - US, UK, Australie, Ireland etc. I heard it was acceptabse to use even "thee\thou" in Ireland or somewhere like that while all other world has already forgotten such words...