In The Near Future - Intermediate

When you want to say that something is going to happen a short time in the future, English doesn't have a special verb tense. Instead, we use one of these phrases.

10 expressions to Use In Speaking And Writing: 
  1. It's going to happen (quite / very) soon.
  2. In (just) a moment / minute..
  3. In (just) a few minutes..
  4. Any second / minute / day now,
  5. Not long now.
  6. In the near future...
  7. Before long,
  8. ...is just around the corner
  9. ..will happen in our lifetimes
  10. Watch this space.
How To Use These Phrases In Your English: 
  1. We use phrase 1 to describe something that we will not need to wait a long time for. the length of time could be minutes, hours or days.
  2. Phrases 2 and 3 are used when something is a few minutes away (no more than ten minutes).
  3. We use phrase 4 to show that we expect something to happen almost immediately but we can't predict exactly when it will happen.
  4. We use phrase 5 to tell other people that they will not need to wait much longer. We often say this to impatient children.
  5. We use phrases 6, 7, and 8 to predict an important change in the world. Phrases 6 and 7 come before a sentence about the future and phrase 8 comes after a noun or noun phrase.
  6. We use phrase 9 to say that we expect an important change in the world in the next fifty or sixty years. Phrase 9 comes after a noun or noun phrase.
  7. Phrase 10 is used in writing, especially journalism to say that the writer expects to be writing about a future event in the same publication tomorrow or a few days later.
Intermediate

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