Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Use of future tense - weird
Hi, I am having trouble distinguishing what the exact difference in meaning between these two sentences is:
He will run at 7am tomorrow.
He is to run at 7am tomorrow.
Similarly, in the past tense, something like:
They would be released at 7am tomorrow.
They were to be released at 7am tomorrow.
I'm not an ESL learner, I'm an aspiring novelist, so I'm curious what the exact difference is, if any. Right now I feel that "He is to run" etc. is more literary and perhaps has a weaker connotation of future certainty. I don't understand what's going on grammatically though, specifically in the following sentence:
"They had been told they [would/were to] be released at 8am the next morning."
I feel like both of them work but this sentence gave me a headache for like an hour trying to figure out what was going on. I have no idea what verb tense it is actually in... obviously 'be released' is passive voice but the would/were to thing is really messing with my head.
He will run at 7am tomorrow.
He is to run at 7am tomorrow.
Similarly, in the past tense, something like:
They would be released at 7am tomorrow.
They were to be released at 7am tomorrow.
I'm not an ESL learner, I'm an aspiring novelist, so I'm curious what the exact difference is, if any. Right now I feel that "He is to run" etc. is more literary and perhaps has a weaker connotation of future certainty. I don't understand what's going on grammatically though, specifically in the following sentence:
"They had been told they [would/were to] be released at 8am the next morning."
I feel like both of them work but this sentence gave me a headache for like an hour trying to figure out what was going on. I have no idea what verb tense it is actually in... obviously 'be released' is passive voice but the would/were to thing is really messing with my head.
Top answer
The "is to" format means that someone else has ordained that time for him to run. I'm having a hard time making "They would be released at 7 am tomorrow" work. "They were to be released at 7 am tomorrow" means that it had previously been arranged for this to happen, but something has changed.
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The "is to" format means that someone else has ordained that time for him to run.
I'm having a hard time making "They would be released at 7 am tomorrow" work.
"They were to be released at 7 am tomorrow" means that it had previously been arranged for this to happen, but something has changed.
I'm having a hard time making "They would be released at 7 am tomorrow" work.
"They were to be released at 7 am tomorrow" means that it had previously been arranged for this to happen, but something has changed.
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