Two questions that are not the same question
Will you come to the meeting?
Will you be coming to the meeting?
Both are correct. They are not the same question, and the difference is not politeness in the ordinary sense.
Four questions.
1. Will you come to the meeting? What is the listener being asked to do?
2. Will you be coming to the meeting? What is the listener being asked?
3. Why does the second one feel easier to answer?
4. Will you be using the car tonight? What is the speaker probably about to ask next?
Six exchanges
Overheard, mostly at work
— Don’t ring me at seven. — Why, what will you be doing? — Eating, with my mother, who will notice.
— I’ll be seeing Ana on Thursday anyway, so I can pass it on. — Perfect. Don’t make a thing of it.
— Will you be needing the room after four? — No, take it.
— By the time the audit starts we will have moved everything to the new system. — Will we. — We will have moved most of it.
— In August I will have been doing this job for nine years. — Nine? — Nine. I have started telling people eight.
— Will you sign it? — Now? — Now.
Four questions about the six exchanges.
1. In the first exchange, why the continuous?
2. I’ll be seeing Ana on Thursday anyway. What does anyway tell you?
3. Why does the fourth speaker downgrade to most of it?
4. The last exchange uses plain will. Why is the continuous impossible there?
The forms, and the four jobs
How they are built
| Form | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Future continuous | I’ll be working. | I won’t be working. | Will you be working? |
| Future perfect | I’ll have finished. | I won’t have finished. | Will you have finished? |
| Future perfect continuous | I’ll have been working here ten years. | I won’t have been working long. | How long will you have been working? |
The three jobs of will be doing
| Job | What it says | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · In progress | This will be going on around you at that moment | At eight I’ll be eating. |
| 2 · Already arranged, as a matter of course | It follows from things that are already true; no new intention | I’ll be seeing her on Thursday anyway. |
| 3 · No intention — asking about facts | Asks whether something is already the case, rather than asking somebody to decide | Will you be needing the room? |
Job three is the one worth having. Will you come? makes the listener decide, in front of you. Will you be coming? asks about a state of affairs that exists without them — so a no is a fact rather than a refusal.
That is why it appears in front of requests (will you be using the car?), in service English (will you be paying by card?) and in any question where you would rather not put somebody on the spot. It is not more polite because it is longer. It is more polite because it removes the decision.
And the perfect: standing at a future point, looking back
| Pattern | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|
| by + time | By June I’ll have finished. | The commonest vantage phrase of all |
| by the time + present | By the time you arrive, we’ll have eaten. | Present, not future, after by the time — the same rule as when and as soon as in Unit 12 |
| before + present | Before you get there, I’ll have gone. | Same rule |
| duration | In August I’ll have been here nine years. | Use the perfect continuous for how long something has been running |
Eight sentences. Match each to what it is doing.
Five questions.
1. You want to borrow your flatmate’s car and would rather not put them on the spot. Which?
2. Which is correct?
3. In March I ___ here for six years.
4. You are inviting somebody and want them to decide. Which?
5. Which is correctly formed?
Ten choices, eight repairs
Ten sentences. Choose the form.
1. Don’t call at six — I ___ the children.
2. Call at seven. I ___ them by then.
3. ___ the printer this afternoon? I need it for an hour.
4. By the time she ___, the shop will have closed.
5. In November I ___ married for twenty years.
6. I ___ Paulo tomorrow anyway, so I can give it to him.
7. ___ us at the wedding? We’d love you to be there.
8. This time next month we ___ in the new flat.
9. By 2030 the bridge ___ for a hundred years.
10. I ___ it before you get back, I promise.
Eight sentences. Seven contain an error; one is correct.
1. By the time you will arrive, we will have finished.
2. At eight I will have dinner, so call later. — in the middle of it
3. In June I will have been work here for five years.
4. Will you be signing this now? — you want them to sign it now
5. I will be seeing her on Thursday anyway. — correct as written
6. By next week I will finished the whole thing.
7. This time tomorrow we will have flying over the Atlantic.
8. She won’t have arrive before six.
Next week, without putting anybody on the spot
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 8 minutes, fast
Find out about your partner’s next seven days — and then ask them for three things.
Four minutes each. Every question about facts uses will you be …ing; every actual request uses plain will you.
- Ask six questions about next week using Will you be …ing? — the car, the room, the evening, the weekend.
- From their answers, make three requests using plain will you, and mean them.
- Answer with the right form too: I’ll be working, I’ll have finished by then, I’ll do it.
- Notice which of your requests were easy to refuse. It will be the ones you checked the facts for first.
Why this order. Checking the facts, then requesting, is how English speakers make small demands on each other all day. Asking for the decision first — will you lend me the car? — forces a yes or a refusal, and the refusal costs the other person something.
What the two questions did
Two questions.
1. When you asked Will you be using…?, what could your partner say?
2. Which form was hardest to produce quickly?
Three jobs and a vantage point
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Why is Will you be coming? easier to answer than Will you come?
2. What tense comes after by the time?
Next. All three perfects side by side — now, then, and later — which turn out to be one rule you have been learning three times.