Hello again! We’ve already discussed ways to express our future plans. In this video lesson, we’re going to focus on predictions. You’ll notice that some of the future forms for plans can be used for predicting the future as well, but with a different meaning.
Let’s note that when we talk about predictions, they are our guesses about the future and often don’t depend on us. We speculate on possible future events. Sometimes we might play a role in their probability, but often that is not the case.
After all, who knows what will happen in the future? Let’s see some examples of predictions.
You’ll meet the love of your life.
There’s a good chance that you will find a new job.
People might exist on a different planet.
It’s unlikely that you’ll win the lottery.
You’re going to improve your skills.
You can see some future forms we previously talked about with our plans – will, might, be going to. Let’s see how we can use them and others.
Starting with will or won’t + infinitive, also called the Future Simple, it is one of the most common ways to make predictions, especially when we base them on our intuition and opinion. This is also why will can often be paired with thinking verbs such as think, guess, suppose, believe.
For example, I think it will rain again tomorrow. Or
With this traffic, I expect we’ll be there late.
We can also combine this form with adverbs like maybe, perhaps, probably, certainly, definitely, etc. to emphasise how certain we are in our prediction. For example, Maybe he’ll step down after the company merger. – this is not as certain as saying He’ll definitely step down after the company merger.
Let’s see the Future Simple in a conversation with questions, positive and negative sentences.
Will people live on Mars one day? – this is a question, which can also be structured as
Do you think people will live on Mars one day?
They probably won’t. But maybe we’ll live underwater?
Maybe. We definitely won’t be able to live the same way.
As you can see, when it comes to predictions, we can make all kinds of sentences with will.
What about be going to + infinitive? unlike with plans, when we talk about predictions, it’s not as often used as will. That’s because we use it for informed predictions, meaning that we are guessing based on proof. For example,
There are clouds in the sky – it’s going to rain. Our prediction is based on the fact that we can see the clouds. They’re the proof.
The hotel is full. They’re not going to give us rooms. We’re making this prediction based on the proof of the hotel being full.
In informal conversations, online discussions or song lyrics you might come across gonna. This is be going to, but in its colloquial form, so it’s spoken English. It’s not a good idea to write it, and definitely don’t use it in a formal setting. So it’s gonna rain is the same as It’s going to rain, but gonna lowers the register a lot.
And, much like will, be going to can also be combined with thinking verbs, as well as adverbs of certainty. Let’s see that in a conversation.
What do you think is going to happen with AI?
Maybe it’s going to become too powerful, like in some films.
Oh, I hope that doesn’t happen!
Well, I don’t think it’s going to be like in “Terminator”.
As you can see, we can use this structure in all kinds of sentences as well – interrogative, positive and negative ones.
One thing about predictions is that we can’t always be certain of them. So, of course, we can also express them with modal verbs like may, could and might + infinitive. Just like we talked in our lesson about plans, might is the most commonly used out of the three, and it has the lowest probability.
For example, They might win, as long as they play their cards right. May is often used as a more formal alternative. Could is used in positive sentences, usually with conditions. For negative sentences, might not and may not are preferred. For instance, With climate change, soon we may not be able to grow traditional crops.
It might be colder tomorrow – dress warmly. Otherwise you could catch a cold.
If we contact aliens, maybe we could live on a different planet with them in the future.
Last but not least, there are alternative structures we can use to predict the future. These are
may well + infinitive, there’s a good chance that something happens, it’s likely or unlikely that something happens, or be likely or unlikely to + verb. So, the same prediction can be expressed in different ways, for example:
They may well win the competition. There’s a good chance that they will win. It’s very likely that they will win. or They’re very likely to win. – all of these show a high degree of probability.
If we want the opposite, we can say that there’s not a good chance, or that it’s unlikely. We can even use likely or unlikely as adjectives. Let’s see examples.
It’s not likely that they will fire him. It’s unlikely that they will fire him. They aren’t likely to fire him. They are unlikely to fire him. – these all mean the same, but you can see how many options we have to say the same things.
Other examples: He’s unlikely to get fired, because he’s the boss’s friend. Him getting fired? That’s unlikely – he’s the boss’s friend. The last example is in more spoken English.
Now it’s your turn. Think about the future and make your predictions with the structures from this lesson. What do you think will happen with Earth and humanity? We might never know, but we’ll meet in another lesson.
Until next time!
