Future Plans and Wishes (Intermediate-Advanced)

Practice on Your Own

There are different ways to talk about the future. For instance, you can talk about the future as a matter of facts (“I will go to that coffee shop tonight”) or you can talk about what you would like to do/happen.

• Think about your plans for next week. How would you express those plans? Which plans are certain, and which ones are uncertain?
  • I’ll go to this meeting./I would like to attend this workshop.
• Think of the year ahead of you. What are your plans? What is the right way to talk about them?
  • I will go to China. I have planned to stay there for one semester. I would like to extend my stay.
  • I have decided to work for the government. I will move to D.C., and I hope to find a job with the government there.
• Prepare a passage in which you talk about your future plans – next month, next year; what will happen, what you would like to happen, what you are planning and hope will happen…
  • Also practice talking about your future plans out loud.

Practice in Conversation Session

• To warm up, have a conversation with your conversation partner about your and their plans for next week. Ask and answer questions about each other’s plans.
• Now have a conversation about your plans for next year. Ask about your conversation partner’s plans. What are the certain events, and what are the uncertain ones?
• Role play planning a party, a meeting, or a picnic together with your conversation partner. Talk about all the details of the event.
• Think farther into the future. What are your plans after graduation? What are your conversation partner’s plans? How do each of you imagine your lives 10 years from now?