未來式重要表達技巧

以舉辦一場Party為例，雖然Party尚未舉行屬於未來式；但是以下的三種不同的動詞用法，即帶有三種不同的意涵：

用法 1: “I will have a party next Saturday.”

The speaker makes the decision to have a party at the time of speaking.

用法 2: “I am going to have a party next Saturday.”

The speaker is talking about a previously made decision to have a party.

用法 3: “I’m having a party next Saturday.”

The speaker is talking about a previously made decision to have a party and is referring to the
whole event (i.e. everything associated with the party).

詳細說明

用法 1: “I will have a party next Saturday.”

This is the “will” future. It tells us that the speaker has made the decision to have a party at the moment of speaking. Perhaps he or she has just heard some good news; and so, before that time there had been no thought of having a party because there was no need.

用法 2: “I am going to have a party next Saturday.”

This statement makes use of the “going to” future because the speaker is talking about an arrangement or plan that is already in place. So, to use the same example as before, he or she must have heard the good news sometime before, and then decided to organize a party. That is, they had already decided to have the party before the moment of speaking.

Many native speakers use the going to future in place of will for plans and intentions unless the utterance (statement) is completely spontaneous. In fact, some use it all the time, arguing that the delay between making the plan silently in your head and announcing your decision aloud, no matter how short the timescale, is justification for using “going to”. This is where real life “applied” grammar and pure grammar (i.e. what you need for exams) go their separate ways. Understanding these differences is called language awareness; and having good language awareness enables you to lift your English to an entirely new level.
Let’s explore this idea of language awareness a bit further by looking at the last of the three sentences.

用法 3: “I’m having a party next Saturday.”

Here the speaker is using the present continuous tense to talk about a “scheduled event in the future” i.e. an event the future that has already been arranged. So, what’s the difference between this and the going to future? Well, the answer is nothing in terms of pure fact, the speaker is indeed going to have a party next Saturday, the difference lies in nature of the two tenses (going to future and present continuous).

The “going to” future is straight forward in that it refers to an event in the future.The only difference between it and the “will” future is the time of planning. The present continuous is something completely different. It refers to an ongoing event. This means when the speaker says they are having a party, they are not just talking about the party itself, they are referring to the whole process.
For example:

1 = Decide to have party.
2 = Start making arrangements.
3 = Send out invitations.
4 = Shop for food and drinks.
5 = Prepare the house.
6 = Put on party clothes.
7 = Greet guests.
8 = Enjoy the party.
9 = Say farewell to departing guests.
10= Do the dishes and tidy up house. 

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