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Comments on Why word future events in the present?

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Why word future events in the present?

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If you're around tomorrow, stop by.

I'll eat when I'm hungry.

She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes.

You're around tomorrow, I'm hungry, and she comes are describing future events but use present wording.

In fact, the corresponding future wording is wrong or at best awkward:

? If you'll be around tomorrow, stop by.

* I'll eat when I'll be hungry.

* She'll be coming around the mountain when she'll come.

Why?

English
posted almost 4 years ago
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msh210‭
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Moshi‭ wrote almost 4 years ago
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Are you asking for some sort of intuitive explanation (beyond an answer just saying "That's how English grammar is"?)

msh210‭ wrote almost 4 years ago
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Not necessarily intuitive, no, @Moshi

Moshi‭ wrote almost 4 years ago · edited almost 4 years ago
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@msh210 Then just a regular explanation? It's that way because "when" refers to the time the action takes place. If you say "I'll eat when I'll be hungry", it means you will eat at the time when being hungry is still in the future (which doesn't really make sense). Taken another way, "present" is relative - in the future, you being hungry is in the present.

Moshi‭ wrote almost 4 years ago
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Taken even another way, "If you'll be around tomorrow" sounds like "If you plan to be around tomorrow" while "If you are around tomorrow" sounds like "If you happen to be around tomorrow".

curiousdannii‭ wrote almost 4 years ago
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English doesn't have a future tense, so what else could it possible do???

Moshi‭ wrote almost 4 years ago
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@curiousdannii English doesn't have an inflection for the future tense, but it can definitely express the future (using the auxiliary verb 'will'). If you read the question, you would see that that is what the asker is asking about - why not use the 'will' construction?