Unit 5 (We’re going to the bird park)
( Present continuous for future arrangements) lesson 3+4
A future arrangement is a plan that you have decided and organised with another person.
The Present Continuous is used to talk about pre-arranged plans or events.
When we use the Present Continuous with this meaning, it is necessary to add a time reference
(tomorrow, tomorrow evening, on/next Sunday) so we know it refers to the future and not to the present:
Statements
To make the Present Continuous with future meaning, we use:
am / is / are + the ‘-ing’ form of the verb + a time marker.
- We’re staying at home on Saturday evening.
- She isn’t working on Thursday morning.
Negative sentences
We form the negative by adding ‘not‘
am / is / are + not + the ‘-ing’ form of the verb
- We’re not having a meeting this afternoon.
- I’m not coming to the party tomorrow.
Questions
To form a question, we rearrange the word order, placing the verb ‘be’ before the subject:
am / is / are + subject +the ‘-ing’ form of the verb
- Are you going to the concert tomorrow?
- What are you doing on Saturday morning?