THE FUTURE CONTINUOUS

Form

subject + will + be + verb +ing (present participle)

Affirmative Yes/no questions Negatives

We’ll be waiting for you. Will you be holding a red rose?

Yes, I will. / No, I won’t.

I won’t be wearing a dress.

Usages

The future continuous form is used in the following ways:

- To say that something will be in progress at a particular moment in the future – This time tomorrow I’ll be lying on the beach.

-To ‘predict the present’ to say what we think or guess might be happening now – John will probably be having lunch now.

- For polite enquiries referring to other people's plans, but not to influence the listener's intentions – Will you be coming to the party?

- To refer to future events which are fixed or decided (without suggesting personal intention) – Professor Smith will be giving another lecture at the same time next

week.

Typical student errors/mistakes

Missing part of the structure:

We will be wait for you.

We will waiting for you.

Function:

The idea that the action will continue around a specific point in the future may

cause confusion.