choice of tense

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Would you please tell me why we can use either tense in each of the following sentences ?

1 All the tickets will have been sold by the time we get / have got there.

2 Whether she plays / will play on Saturday depends on what her doctor says.

3 We will go / are going to bed as soon as the programme has finished / finishes.

Many thanks,
Hela

[danmahaffey]

Oftentimes, more than one combination of tenses will work. I don't have a chart prepared--I don't know if there is one anywhere--that shows which tenses match up with which other tenses. I may work out one for us.

In the meantime, the following comments are open to our resident linguists to critique:

Future perfect states that something will be complete before the other action in the sentence. So, as long as the other action is in a tense that completes, then it "should" work with future perfect.

Future is one of my favorite topics. There are dozens of way to form the future, since English has no native inflected future tense--it must be formed by modals. The classroom future tense uses will, but many other forms make a useful future tense too. See these examples:I will visit my cousin in Russia next spring.
She is going to study law at Harvard in January.
I may be seeing the dentist in the morning.
We can run that experiment later.
I must tell Lucy this afternoon that the dogs need bathing!
Remember children, we visit grandmother tomorrow.
Next Thursday, you are in London, then Sunday you fly to Rio.

So, in some cases, present works fine as a future tense, as does progressive.


What do you think?

[hela]

Thank you Dan for all the examples you gave me.
Have a nice day.
Hela

[danmahaffey]

You are welcome.

Remember, everyone has been taught that will [verb] is the future tense form. This is a very strong custom--almost unbreakable. Yet we can make future statements in many ways, not just by using will. But, when it comes to an exam, use will, and stay happy. :)