Learn how to use the future continuous tense to describe an event happening at a certain time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Discussing Important Business in your British Meeting |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the future continuous. |
| Kellie: The conversation takes place in the office between Jessica and Lucy. |
| John: The pair are employer and employee, but are on friendly terms, so the language will be informal. |
| John: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jessica: Hey Lucy, have you seen the front page of today’s Sun newspaper? One of the judges on that TV talent show has been caught sneaking around in hotel rooms with a man ten years her junior! |
| Lucy: Isn’t she married? |
| Jessica: Yes! It’s a big scandal; she’s built her image upon being a devoted wife and now she’s been caught cheating on her husband. |
| Lucy: He’s a famous footballer, isn’t he? |
| Jessica: You haven’t heard the best part of the scandal yet! The guy she’s having an affair with is a footballer too and plays for the local rivals! On Sunday, they are going to be playing each other! |
| Lucy: I don’t know… sometimes I think the tabloids overstep their mark in situations like this. Surely it’s nobody’s business but the married couple’s? |
| Jessica: (shrugs) That’s the price of being famous. I’m very glad that the tabloids report on things like this. |
| Lucy: Why is that? |
| Jessica: In our meeting this afternoon, we will be talking about this! Those high level management meetings don’t last all afternoon because we’re discussing quarterly performance, targets or profits. It’s because we’re chatting about the latest celebrity scandals. |
| Lucy: (laughs) That’s how we spend our lunchtimes. It really isn’t that different at the top compared to the bottom, is it? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: This lesson was all about gossip. |
| John: A lot of things are all about gossip! It’s a very popular topic of conversation in the UK, especially in places like offices. |
| Kellie: Yeah, you always hear lots of gossip in an office, either about celebrities or the staff that work there. It’s driven by the popularity of tabloid newspapers and magazines, I think. |
| John: I think so too. The tabloids in the UK are the biggest selling newspapers, and they mix celebrity gossip with actual news so sometimes it’s hard to tell what is truth and what is rumour. They’re set side by side and treated with the same level of seriousness. |
| Kellie: They have discovered a few genuine celebrity scandals over the years, but I think that most of their stories are at best exaggerated and at worst lies. |
| John: I agree. There has been a lot of trouble for tabloid newspapers lately. |
| Kellie: Yeah, one of the biggest Sunday tabloid newspapers was forced to close after over a hundred years of publication, as they were found to be bugging phones and rumoured to be paying off police officers. |
| John: The tabloids in the UK can get out of hand and have a reputation as being some of the worst in the world for celebrity gossip. |
| Kellie: But they’re successful and sell lots of copies. |
| John: Yeah, as much as we may think their methods are wrong, we still love reading about the latest footballer to have an affair and then gossiping about it! |
| Kellie: (laughs) some people do! |
| John: As Jessica says in the dialogue – it’s what most business meetings are about! |
| Kellie: Let’s move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is: |
| Kellie: to drop [natural native speed] |
| John: to stop using |
| Kellie: to drop [slowly - broken down by syllable] to drop [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: front page [natural native speed] |
| John: the cover page of a newspaper where the big stories are displayed |
| Kellie: front page [slowly - broken down by syllable] front page [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to sneak [natural native speed] |
| John: to move quietly and discreetly with the hope of not being seen |
| Kellie: to sneak [slowly - broken down by syllable] to sneak [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: scandal [natural native speed] |
| John: an action or event considered morally wrong |
| Kellie: scandal [slowly - broken down by syllable] scandal [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: devoted [natural native speed] |
| John: very loving and loyal, faithful and dedicated |
| Kellie: devoted [slowly - broken down by syllable] devoted [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: tabloids [natural native speed] |
| John: newspapers that specialise in gossip |
| Kellie: tabloids [slowly - broken down by syllable] tabloids [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: overstep the mark [natural native speed] |
| John: to go further than you should, to go too far with actions or advice |
| Kellie: overstep the mark [slowly - broken down by syllable] overstep the mark [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: quarterly performance [natural native speed] |
| John: how the company performs over a three month period – a quarter of a year |
| Kellie: quarterly performance [slowly - broken down by syllable] quarterly performance [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: targets [natural native speed] |
| John: the goals that a company aims to achieve |
| Kellie: targets [slowly - broken down by syllable] targets [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kellie: Our first new item is “front page”. |
| John: Let’s go back to newspapers again. The literal meaning is the front page of the newspaper where traditionally the most important piece of news is printed and displayed. It’s the news that grabs the attention and sells the paper. |
| Kellie: But the term doesn’t just refer to newspapers. |
| John: No, any news that is of huge importance can be describe as front page news, or you can use the term in an ironic manner to mock news that isn’t important but is being treated as such. |
| Kellie: Next is “to overstep the mark”. |
| John: This means to go further than you should. If you have a certain role at work and boundaries to work within, but you did more and stepped out of those boundaries and it wasn’t needed or wanted, you could be seen to be overstepping your mark. |
| Kellie: So tabloid newspapers often overstep their mark when they’re pursuing a story. |
| John: Frequently, I think! |
| Kellie: Finally we have “at the top”. |
| John: This refers to the top tier or level of companies and society. The board of directors that runs the company are at the top of the company. The politicians that run the country and the Royal Family are at the top of society. |
| Kellie: It’s the group that has all of the money and power, such as the level that Jessica works in. |
| John: Yes it is. |
| Kellie: Okay, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the future continuous. |
| John: We can use the future continuous tense to describe an event that will happen at a certain time. It may have started before that time or continue past it, but it will be definitely be happening at the time specified. |
| Kellie: How do we use it? |
| John: The sentence structure is to use either “going to be” or “will be” alongside the gerund version – the “-ing” version – of the verb. It has to be the gerund |
| because that indicates that an ongoing action is happening at the time specified. |
| Kellie: “Later in this conversation, you will be telling us some examples.” |
| John: Oh, that was good example of the future continuous! You started with the time “later in this conversation” and then used the gerund “telling” to say what I will be doing. |
| Kellie: I thought that I would try to help! How about some examples from the dialogue? |
| John: Okay – “on Sunday, they are going to be playing each other!” So we have the time which is Sunday, and this sentence uses “going to be” and finishes with the gerund version of the verb play. |
| Kellie: Another dialogue example is “in our meeting this afternoon, we will be talking about this!” |
| John: Yeah, again it’s the time, “this afternoon,” followed by “will be” and then a gerund – “talking” |
| Kellie: It all seems pretty straight forward, I think. |
| John: I think it is too! Here are some more examples. “From 8pm, I am going to be studying”. The sentence begins with the time, then it’s “going to be” and finally the verb “studying”. |
| Kellie: How about this example - “next week I will be travelling abroad.” |
| John: Yeah, time, “will be” and “travelling”. In this case it’s possible that the travelling will start prior to next week and may continue past next week, but it will definitely be happening next week. Another one is “on Saturday, I will be acting in a play”. |
| Kellie: We start with the time, “Saturday”, then “will be” follows and then there is the verb “acting”. |
| John: Yes. “On Saturday, I will be watching your acting.” |
| Kellie: (laughs) thanks. Are there any things we need to pay attention to? |
| John: It must be a “~ing” verb, a gerund, otherwise it won’t make sense. Also, the positioning of the time is pretty flexible. It can go at the start or at the end of the sentence - “I will be travelling abroad next week” is as correct as “next week I will be travelling Abroad”. |
Outro |
| Kellie: Okay, thanks for that. That’s all we have time for this time. Make sure you check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| John: See you! |
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