TESOL Khartoum

In my opinion, this unit does not strictly deal only with the future tense but also with certain forms of the present tense that can be used to talk about the future. For example, when we use the \"be going to\" structure, the only thing that implies a time in the future is the verb. If we say, \"be starting to\" the structure remains the same but now we're back to present continuous, for example, \"I'm starting to see now.\" Therefore, except in the cases of the future simple, perfect, continuous and perfect continuous, it is merely the meaning of a single word (be it a verb, an adverb or noun) that implies we are talking about the future. For example, \"I'm drinking coffee now\" vs. \"I'm drinking coffee tomorrow.\" I do not feel comfortable referring to the second sentence as the future tense when it is demonstrably not. But then of course, \"will\" and \"shall\" are also auxiliary verbs, which can easily be replaced with \"can\", which I would argue means that there really isn't such a thing as a future tense in English. The idea that we are talking about the future seems to be really just the result of inflexion or the relativity one word has to another in a sentence.