Future Forms

Future Arrangements - The Present Continuous

We often use the present continuous tense (present progressive tense) for future arrangements.

We use the verb be and the gerund (infinitive + ing) .

For I, be changes into am.

For You, We and They, be changes into are.

For He, She and It, be changes into is:

Subject	BE	Action/Gerund		Time Phrase
I	am	visiting	him	next week.
You	are	working	here	on Monday.
He	is	meeting	her	tomorrow.
She	is	coming	here	next month.
We	are	having	coffee	this afternoon.
They	are	leaving	town	tomorrow morning.

Questions

Be comes before the subject in questions.

For closed questions (yes and no answers):

BE	Subject	Action/Gerund		Yes/No	Subject	BE
Am	I	studying?	⇒	Yes,	you	are.
Are	you	teaching?	⇒	Yes,	I	am.
Is	he	coming?	⇒	Yes,	he	is.
Is	she	visiting?	⇒	No,	she	isn't.
Are	we	meeting?	⇒	Yes,	we	are.
Are	they	playing?	⇒	No,	they	aren't.

For open questions (many possible answers) we use a question word:

Question	BE	Subject	Action/Gerund
Where	am	I	studying?
What	are	you	teaching?
When	is	he	coming?
When	is	she	visiting?
Where	are	we	meeting?
When	are	they	playing?

Contractions

We contract am, are and is into 'm, 're and 's:

BE	Contraction
am	'm
are	're
is	's

Subject + BE	Action/Gerund
I'm	studying.
You're	teaching.
He's	coming.
She's	visiting.
We're	meeting.
They're	playing.

Negatives

We often contract the negatives are not and is not into aren't and isn't.

We can also contract the negatives are not and is not into 're not and 's not:

BE (-)	Contraction (-)
am not	'm not
are not	aren't / 're not
is not	isn't / 's not

Tip!
* We cannot contract the negative am not into amn't. ✘
* We can contract the negative am not into 'm not. ✔

Subject + Contraction (-)	Action/Gerund
I'm not	studying.
You aren't	teaching.
He isn't	coming.
She isn't	visiting.
We aren't	meeting.
They aren't	playing.

Subject + Contraction (-)	Action/Gerund
I'm not	studying.
You're not	teaching.
He's not	coming.
She's not	visiting.
We're not	meeting.
They're not	playing.

Short Answers

For closed questions (yes and no answers) we also use the verb be

Short answers are the same as with be in the present simple tense:

Positive (+)	Negative (-)
Yes, I am.	No, I'm not.
Yes, you are.	No, you aren't. /	No, you're not.
Yes, he is.	No, he isn't. /	No, he's not.
Yes, she is.	No, she isn't. /	No, she's not.
Yes, it is.	No, it isn't. /	No, it's not.
Yes, we are.	No, we aren't. /	No, we're not.
Yes ,they are.	No, they aren't. /	No, they're not.

Tip!
* We cannot contract the positive short forms:
Yes, you're. ✘
Yes, you are. ✔

BE	Subject	Action/Gerund		Yes/No	Subject	BE
Am	I	studying?	⇒	Yes,	you	are.
Are	you	teaching?	⇒	Yes,	I	am.
Is	he	coming?	⇒	Yes,	he	is.
Is	she	visiting?	⇒	No,	she	isn't.
Are	we	meeting?	⇒	Yes,	we	are.
Are	they	playing?	⇒	No,	they	aren't.

Now try the quiz below!