If you talk to a linguist, he or she may tell you that there is no such thing as the “future” as far as the English language is concerned! We only have two groups of tenses; those that refer to events in past time, and those that talk about the present or the future.
Very often, we use a present tense in English to talk about future events: look at this short dialogue:
“Where are you going next summer?”
“We’re staying at home. I’m working all summer!”
“Oh what a pity. Don’t you even get a week off?”
“Well perhaps; we may go to Wales for a couple of days.”
Although this dialogue clearly refers to the future, the verbs are all in forms of the present. There is no “will”, no “going to”.
This does not mean that using a clear future tense would be wrong; it would be possible to add the words going to to stress the future nature of events (remembering that going to is actually the present progressive tense of go .)
“Where are you going to go this summer?”
“We’re going to stay at home; I’m going to work all summer.”
“Oh what a pity. Aren’t you even going to get a week off?”
“Well perhaps; maybe we'll go to Wales ....”
But in most cases, this would sound heavy.
Present forms are the simplest way of expressing future time in many cases: the present progressive often expresses non-defined time in the future, the present simple refers to instant defined moments in time, or events that will occur regularly.
Using "will" or "going to"
A “future” with will is used to imply a deliberate predetermined action.
Look at this dialogue:
“Are you coming home tonight, darling?”
“Yes; my plane gets in at 8.15.”
“O.K. then, I’ll meet you at the airport.”.
A future form with will is also needed whenever it is necessary to avoid confusion between present and future (for example when there is no adverb of time present) Compare:
I see / I’ll see - I’m there / I’ll be there
Will and going to ARE NOT USED...
a) With modal verbs can, must, should, could, would.
If it is essential to mark the future aspect of a modal structure, it is necessary to use have to instead of must, and be able to instead of can, as in:
You’ll have to do better next time (but you could also say: You must do better next time.)
b) in time clauses after if, when, as soon as, unless, after, before, while etc.
We’ll have a picnic tomorrow if it’s dry.
Open the door as soon as you hear the bell.
I’ll tell you the rest of the story when we get home.
Generally speaking, will is not used in subordinate clauses of any type.
I’ll sell it to the first person who makes a good offer.
They’ll mend it for you while you wait.
You’ll do whatever you’re told to do!
Using shall
Shall and the negative form shan't are not often used in modern English; more than just expressing a future action, they express a future obligation or certainty, and are normally only used in the first person singular (with I), as in.I shall certainly visit the British Museum when I'm next in London.
I shan't be able to come next week, as I'm away on business.
But in both of these example, will / won't are quite acceptable alternatives.
To avoid any risk of error, the simplest principle to adopt is "never say shall". Don't use these forms! They are slightly archaic, and there is no case in which they are the only option possible.
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