"My train arrives at 7.30 tomorrow".. or "My train will arrive at 7.30 tomorrow"
Which one is gramatically correct?
Usually I use the future but I heard a lot of people that use the first sentence and I don't understand why.
Thank you in advance
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John Lawler
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6You don't have to use will when you refer to the future. Will is just another modal auxiliary verb, not "the future tense". English refers to the future in lots of ways, most of which are in the present tense: He goes tomorrow; he's going tomorrow; he is to go tomorrow; he's going to go tomorrow (pronounced "gonna go"), etc. They're all grammatical. – John Lawler Sep 04 '18 at 14:00
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Even he would go tomorrow is grammatical. – Lawrence Sep 04 '18 at 15:17
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1@Lawrence: Even if he went* tomorrow*, it would still be grammatical! :) – FumbleFingers Sep 04 '18 at 15:59
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1@FumbleFingers Indeed, though it might be a bridge too far (or not!) had he gone tomorrow. :) – Lawrence Sep 04 '18 at 16:04
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1@Lawrence: Let's not burn all our contextual bridges! I'm really surprised he left today. Had he gone tomorrow he could have used a cheap Off-Peak ticket. – FumbleFingers Sep 04 '18 at 16:18
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@FumbleFingers Haha, good one! – Lawrence Sep 04 '18 at 16:25
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@JohnLawler you should write that up as an actual answer, not a comment; posting answers as comments circumvents the standard voting system and means your answer is a lot more likely to vanish. tchrist has written up an answer that's just a direct quote of your comment, so that's not a danger here, but you should really write your own in the future. – Sep 04 '18 at 19:51
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also see: “The train will leave” vs. “is going to leave” vs. “leaves” vs. “is leaving” – Erin B Sep 04 '18 at 20:03
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In a comment, John Lawler wrote:
You don't have to use will when you refer to the future. Will is just another modal auxiliary verb, not "the future tense". English refers to the future in lots of ways, most of which are in the present tense: He goes tomorrow; he's going tomorrow; he is to go tomorrow; he's going to go tomorrow (pronounced "gonna go"), etc. They're all grammatical.
tchrist
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My train arrives at 7.30 tomorrow.. or My train will arrive at 7.30 tomorrow.
Syntactically, the modal auxiliary verb "will" has two tenses: present and preterite. Semantically, it is used to make reference to future time (about 80% of its occurrences, I believe) but also for expressing volition (as in I keep telling my son to get his hair cut, but he won't; so I've told him he has to --- notice, the refusals to get his hair cut are in the PAST, and this sentence actually entails that there IS a haircut in his future!).
The film will be seen at the Sundance festival is syntactically a present tense clause with "will" as the tensed verb. But in that example, "will" clearly expressed reference to future time --- something that could be done in various other ways as well (The film is going to be seen at the Sundance festival, The film is about to be seen at the Sundance festival, etc.).
BillJ
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