Present Progressive as Future. In this lesson you'll learn how sometimes we use the present progressive to talk about the future. The design team is planning a presentation. They are giving the presentation tomorrow. They are finishing it now. They are taking a bus to a conference tomorrow morning. Okay. All of these sentences are in the present progressive, b verb and -ing. But some of them are happening right now and some of them are plans for tomorrow. First let's look for the verbs, is planning, are giving, are finishing, are taking. Okay, now look at these sentences, the design team is planning a presentation that is happening right now. They are finishing it now, that is also happening right now, you know because it says now. They are giving the presentation tomorrow, that's happening in the future and they are taking a bus to a conference tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning is also the future. Let's take a closer look. Both of these sentences are in the present progressive, are planning and are giving. But the first sentence, they are planning a presentation that is happening now. I know this because well first I have a picture and I can see they are planning a presentation now. Secondly, there is no other information in the sentence to tell me that it's not happening now. But look at the second sentence. They are giving the presentation tomorrow, here I have the word tomorrow and this tells me it's the future. They are giving the presentation tomorrow. Here's another example. It is Friday morning and Ms Mason is thinking about her busy day. She is meeting With a client at 10:00. She's eating with a colleague at 1:00. She is going to a meeting at 2:30, and she's finishing a report at 4:00. That is a busy day. Okay let's look, these are all in the present progressive. I see every verb here is a b verb, is, and then another verb with -ing. But in the first sentence it is Friday morning and Ms Mason is thinking about her busy day, that is happening now. I know that because I can see that there's a picture of a person thinking and also it says it is Friday morning, that sounds like right now. All of these other sentences happen in the future and I know that because they have a specific time later today, that's how we use the present progressive for the future. When we put some other time that tells us it is going to happen in the future. We often use the present progressive to talk about plans in the future. Let's look at some examples in conversations. Here we have two friends they are talking, one asks, what are you doing this weekend, do you have plans? And the other says, yes, I'm going to a concert on Saturday and my family is having dinner together on Sunday. These sentences he uses to answer are in the present progressive, I'm going to a concert. My family is having dinner but he uses Saturday and Sunday to show that these are his plans for the weekend. Here two friends are talking and one friend asks, what are you doing later? And she answers, I'm having dinner with Marco tonight and here they use the words later and tonight with the present progressive to talk about their plans in the future. Here he calls Lisa and asks, hi Lisa, do you want to go to the movies tonight? And Lisa answers, that sounds fun but I am working tonight. And here one sister calls the other, hi sis, do you want to go for a walk this morning? And her sister answers yes, I'm taking the boys to preschool at 9, how about 9:30 and she uses 9:00 a specific time to show that's her plan even though she uses the present progressive. Today is Friday, Kevin is flying to a conference, he is going to give a presentation. He is coming back on Sunday. In this lesson you learned you not only use present progressive for happening right now, but you also use it for happening in the future. Let's look, today is Friday that is right now, Kevin is flying to a conference that is also happening right now. He is going to give a presentation, going to give, going to verb, that's the future. He is coming back on Sunday, that is the present progressive used as the future because we have that plan in the future on Sunday.
