Two often interchangeable forms of the English future tense

H in the library in the library

ERE’S or conjecture: “I amgoingtobe a successful doctor someday.” “We aregoingtobe mortal enemies at

of a general prediction or guess about the future, the forms “will +

be used interchangeably to mean precisely the same thing. Compare: “This rainy season willbea periloustime for low-lying areas.” “This rainy season isgoingtobea periloustime for low-lying areas.” In such situations, the speaker has little or no control at all on what might happen.

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Here’s another interesting grammar question, this time from Fo-

the difference between the sentences ‘He speaks English likeanEnglishman’ and ‘He speaks English asanEnglishman?’”

those two sentences mean two different things altogether.

conjunction “like” can mean “as if” or “in the same way that” or “in a way or manner that.” In the

likeanEnglishman,” “like” is used in the sense of “as if,” so the sentence is synonymous with “He speaks English asifhe isanEnglishman.” Also, “like” can be used in the sense of “in the same way that,” as in “They detesteachotherlikechildren detest bad- tasting medicine”; and also in the sense of “in the way or manner that,” as in “He negotiates deals likeanoldentertainment

In contrast, in the sentence “He speaks English asanEnglishman,” the conjunction “as” is used in the sense of “in the way

- ing that the speaker is, in fact, an Englishman and speaks English

Englishman. This sense is entirely different from that of “He speaks English likeanEnglishman,” which means that the speaker is, in fact, not an Englishman but can speak it as well as an Englishman does.

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