Susanne's Rule

28 Jan 2015

Susanne’s Rule

In class we were thinking about how we say things with the future tense in English – when to use will amd when to use going to and after a little confusion Susanne said to one of her neighbours a little rule that she uses when she uses about the future tense in English and that was:

“If I am unsure which verb form to use in a particular case, I just use will

This is good advice as you can say a sentence with will in where the emphasis is regular or on the will and that makes a difference in meaning:

I WILL go and make a cup of coffee
(there is a definite intent to do it)

I’ll go and make a cup of coffee
(it is just something that you’ll be doing and you are mentioning it so people know where you are)

Often we used words like definitely and just to add emphasis are remove emphasis from the intention we want to express.