Dialogue 3
Hannah and Simon are planning a picnic with Abigail and Gary, but
Hannah’s a bit worried about the weather.
H
ANNAH
: Will it rain later, do you think?
S
IMON
:[looks in the paper] The forecast says it’ll be sunny till
lunchtime.
H
ANNAH
: What about this afternoon?
S
IMON
:[looks in the paper again] Clouds and wind will come
in from the west.
H
ANNAH
: So it won’t rain today, then?
S
IMON
: I don’t think so – but it’ll be chilly for a picnic.
H
ANNAH
: Let’s put it off till tomorrow, shall we?
S
IMON
: OK. Will you phone Abigail and Gary to let them
know?
H

you’ll /jul/ they’ll /ðεil/
he’ll /hil/ Peter’ll /`pitərəl/
she’ll /ʃil/ Jane’ll /`

εinəl/
But in questions we always use the full form will, not ’ll:
Will it rain? not ‘’ll it rain?
’
and we always use the full form in tags:
Yes, it will not ‘Yes, it’ll
’
As with all auxiliaries, we form the negative by adding not – but in
colloquial English we have a special short form for will not: won’t
/wəυnt/.
We use the will-future in two main situations:
(1) to talk about things we know or expect will happen:
The next train will leave
at eight o’clock
China will win
the international swimming competition
The children will enjoy
the trip to the cinema
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(2) to express intention to do something in the near future:
I’ll phone
you at about six
We’ll book
the tickets today
I’ll go
upstairs and tell James
We also use will in the phrase Will you . . .? +
BASE
-
FORM
:
Will you phone Dave and Pete?
When Alex says this, she is not asking about the future – she’s
making a request (asking someone to do something). This is the
normal way of making requests in English – here are some more
examples:
Will you open the door for me?
Will you help me with my homework?
Will you check the oil in the car, please?
And we use won’t when we refuse to do something:
I won’t help
him because I don’t like him
Exercise 4
Rewrite these future sentences using going to or will/won’t – the

Dialogue 4
James rings Dave to change plans.
J
AMES
: Hello Dave.
D
AVE
: James! How’s things?
J
AMES
: Fine. But listen, Dave – something’s come up, and I
have to visit my family in Scotland. But I know we
were going to get together tomorrow over lunch to
discuss business, weren’t we?
D
AVE
: Yes – do you want to put it off?
J
AMES
: Would you mind?
D
AVE
: No problem! How about later in the week?
J
AMES
: Would Thursday fit in with you?
D
AVE
: Thursday’s fine. I’ll put you down for twelve o’clock.
Language point 44 – more about

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and he puts the
OBJECT
pronoun you before the second part of the
phrasal verb. He doesn’t say:
‘I’ll put down you for twelve o’clock
’
When we use

4 I need to look up these words. __________________ .
5 Could you write down the
address? __________________ ?
6 Will you fill in these forms? __________________ ?
7 We’re going to send back the
letters. __________________ .
8 They’re going to knock down
this building. __________________ .
9 Tom’s trying to start up the
engine. __________________ .
10 Switch off the lights, please. __________________ .
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