Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to improve their oral comprehension. As always, you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

Today’s episode is all about grammar. As you might remember, I have already done something similar for present perfect and past perfect as those are ones of the most problematic tenses. So today, we are continuing with this trend and we’re diving into the future continuous.

The future continuous tense is for talking about something that will be in progress at a specific moment in the future. The structure is simple: will + be + verb-ing. If you want to talk about what you’ll be doing at a certain time in the future, this is the tense you need.

It’s actually exactly like present continuous, but you move the action into the future. Right now I can say: I am recording a podcast. It is 2 pm and I am doing it now. If I move it into the future, it’s: I will be recording a podcast at 2 pm TOMORROW. That’s it. Same idea, different time.

We use future continuous when we know exactly what will be happening at a particular moment in the future, when we want to paint a picture of that moment, not just say a fact, and when we want to sound more natural and fluent instead of always using “will” plus a base verb. And you know me… I’m going to explain this with stories so maybe it will stick a little easier.

Let’s start simple. Imagine tomorrow, around 1 pm. What will I be doing? I won’t be in my office. I won’t be checking emails. I won’t be scrolling Instagram… okay, maybe a little before I start cooking. I’ll be in the kitchen, wearing my apron, chopping vegetables, stirring a sauce, probably tasting it too many times before it’s even ready, and listening to a podcast or some 90s music in the background. I use future continuous here because at 1 pm tomorrow, the action will be in progress. It’s not just “I will cook lunch” …. that sounds like I’m telling you my plan. But “I will be cooking lunch” puts you right there in the moment with me. And this is exactly like present continuous: “I am cooking lunch” now, “I will be cooking lunch” tomorrow at 1 pm. Same structure, different time.

Now let’s move to something more exciting: on 27th of August, I will be hiking in the Alps. Yes, the Austrian Alps! I can already imagine it. Late morning, the sun will be shining but won’t be too hot …. it will be the perfect hiking weather. The air will smell like pine trees, there will be a small mountain stream running down the side of the trail. And then, there will be me – I will be walking uphill, probably breathing heavily because, let’s be honest, uphill is uphill and honestly, I think my conditioning is not the best right now. I’ll be taking photos of absolutely everything, and wondering why I didn’t start training earlier. At that moment, hiking will be the action in progress. That’s why I chose future continuous – I’m describing the picture of that exact moment.

And finally, on 21st of September at 6 pm, I will be chatting with my friend who is visiting for the weekend. I can already see us sitting in my living room with coffee or maybe wine, depending on the mood. We’ll be catching up on life, laughing at old stories, and probably planning something spontaneous for Sunday. Again, this tense is perfect here because I know exactly what will be happening at that time and I want to focus on that ongoing action.

So here’s a little practice for you. Imagine a date and a specific time in the future and make a sentence with future continuous. Maybe: “At 8 pm tonight, I will be watching my favourite TV show.” Or “Next Friday at lunchtime, I will be eating lunch with my colleagues.” If you come up with some good ones, send me a message on Instagram. I love reading your examples.

Before we finish, I have a little announcement. If grammar like this makes you go “Finally, I get it!”, you’re going to love my new course Mastering English Tenses, coming out this September. It’s eight lessons covering all the English tenses, explained in a way that’s fun and easy to understand, with clear examples, reading practice, interactive escape games, and even feedback from me if you want to practise actively. You’ll not only understand when to use each tense but also why, so you’ll stop hesitating mid-sentence and start speaking with confidence.

All the details and updates are on my Instagram and website, and I’ll link them in the show notes.

Thank you for listening! If you liked this episode, please leave a five-star rating and share it with your friends. Don’t forget, you can find the transcript and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. See you next time. Bye bye