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That is what I learned from grammar books.

  1. "I go to the cinema tomorrow" means I am scheduled to go there at that fixed time

  2. “I am going to the movies tomorrow” means I bought the ticket (ie I arranged it)

  3. “I am going to go to the movies tomorrow” means I am planning to go to the movies but I have not bought any ticket.

  4. “I will go to the movies tomorrow” means right now I suddenly have that intention of going to the movies (this is a spontaneous decision at the time of speaking)

Today is the 1st of May and the city council announced the city will be locked down from the 2nd of May to the 16th of May.

Is it correct to say

  1. “The city will have been being locked down for 15 days from tomorrow.” (is it like a prediction?)

  2. “The city will have been in lockdown for 15 days from tomorrow.” (is it like a prediction?)

  3. “The city is in lockdown for 15 days from tomorrow." (is this like a future scheduled event?)

  4. “The city is being locked down for 15 days from tomorrow.” (is this like a future arrangement?)

Tom
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    The city will be locked down for 15 days beginning tomorrow. Or as of tomorrow. – Xanne Jul 09 '21 at 05:04
  • Fifteen days from tomorrow sure is a funny way to say sixteen days. :) – tchrist Jul 09 '21 at 05:11
  • I'm marking this as a duplicate because Robusto's answer answers this. You're talking about a point in the future (16 May) and assessing a period up to then, from a point that's still in the future at the moment (2 May). "On 16 May, the city will have been in lockdown for 15 days". Your difficulty is when including "from tomorrow" as that fixes the reference point and then looks forward from that point to a date further in the future: "The city will be in lockdown for 15 days from tomorrow". – Andrew Leach Jul 09 '21 at 07:14
  • Having said that, there are several ways of expressing the future: "is in lockdown" and "is being locked down" work just as well as "will be in lockdown". The point is that you can't use "will have been" when you're assessing a period in the future of your reference point. – Andrew Leach Jul 09 '21 at 07:21
  • Many of those example sentences are ungrammatical. And most of the 'Cinema' ones do not necessarily match the descriptions, in common speech all three are synonymous. Of the others, only number 7 describes the situation you've set out. – JeffUK Jul 09 '21 at 07:39
  • @Mari-LouA Use of the passive does not change how the tense of the verb is assessed. I don't believe "will have been being" fits anywhere. – Andrew Leach Jul 09 '21 at 08:05
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    @AndrewLeach I don't believe "will have been being" fits anywhere. Where would the OP understand that? From your comment or from Robusto's infographic? Here you have an English language problem, nothing to do with SWR or style, but about language and it gets closed as a duplicate when that older question is about how the different tenses relate to each other. The OP's focused on the future, they have written four sentences and they're unsure which one fits best or if their understanding matches the meaning. – Mari-Lou A Jul 09 '21 at 08:08
  • Well, I suppose you could say "On 16 May I will have been being King for 15 days", but that's far more likely to be stated as "On 16 May I will have been King for 15 days". But there's still the issue of reference points, which is addressed in my comments and the infographic. – Andrew Leach Jul 09 '21 at 08:12
  • Your understanding of No. 3 is mistaken, it means the speaker's decision to visit the cinema was made in the past. The speaker may or may not have bought/reserved/booked a ticket, we don't know. To say "I had the intention" suggests that the speaker has since changed their mind and will no longer see the movie. No 5 is ungrammatical. It might be best to begin all the examples with "Starting from tomorrow the city....” I don't think Robusto's answer is at all helpful in this situation, it clarifies very little, if anything. This isn't a duplicate, so I'm casting my reopen vote. – Mari-Lou A Jul 09 '21 at 08:18
  • No. 3 does not mean the decision was made in the past. One could stand up and exclaim "I'm going to go to the cinema tomorrow!" having just decided. – JeffUK Jul 09 '21 at 08:44
  • @Mari-LouA, I did not use the word correctly. "I am going to go to the cinema" means "I am planning to go there but I have not bought a ticket" or "I have made that plan but not yet bought the ticket". – Tom Jul 09 '21 at 08:52
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    @AndrewLeach, you assume that just knowing all the tense formulas, I can use all the tenses correctly? How could that be possible? Like math? This is English not math. It's also the meaning of the verbs as well and whether that verb is allowed to use that tense or not. I would give you a Nobel prize if you could make a student use all the tenses correctly by just learning the formula – Tom Jul 09 '21 at 08:58
  • @Tom As far as "will have been" is concerned, which is what your question is about, Yes. It's in the linked answer and my comments. While there are bound to be a few specific anomalies, the vast majority of cases (including yours) are answered there, and as I explained the issue you have is using "tomorrow" as your reference point. – Andrew Leach Jul 09 '21 at 09:05
  • @JeffUK of course it doesn't exclude that usage, practically every sentence that refers to the future could be said with "will" or "going to" but often the "going to" construction expresses a desire or decision that was not decided at that split moment but sometime in the past , e.g. "She's going to move house in the spring." – Mari-Lou A Jul 09 '21 at 09:25
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    Sorry Tom, the question has been reviewed (in mere minutes) and 3 users have cast their vote to keep it closed because it's a duplicate. I totally disagree. Robusto's answer is an infographic, clever, useful if you're just starting as a teacher but if it were that good someone would have copied and used it in students' coursebooks and grammar guide books by now. – Mari-Lou A Jul 09 '21 at 09:36
  • @AndrewLeach only Jon Purdy's answer offers constructive help to the OP but it is diluted because Robusto's question is much too broad (Hmmm... maybe that should be closed because it lacks focus and detail!) Purdy's answer only touches the surface where the usageof different future expressions are concerned. – Mari-Lou A Jul 09 '21 at 09:45
  • @AndrewLeach, instead of saying "On 16 May, the city will have been in lockdown for 15 days", it's better to say "By 16 May, the city will have been in lockdown for 15 days". "By" not "On" – Tom Jul 09 '21 at 15:15
  • @Tom You could also say "By yesterday/tomorrow/last June, the city will have been in lockdown for a fortnight already." Trying to call will have + past participle** a future something is problematic in many scenarios. It's far more connected to the past due to the past participle. The modal verb will is here used in an epistemic mode for saying you're pretty sure that that happened for sure. – tchrist Jul 09 '21 at 18:53

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