future simple vs. future continuous
Hi! I'm learning English and have a difficult homework. I'm very confused about choosing the right option since sentences 1, 4 and 5 seems to be correct with both options.
Choose the correct form to complete the sentence
1. This time tomorrow I will sing / will be singing at the club.
2. By the time they open, she will shop / will be shopping in a different store.
3.I am going to speak / will be speaking with Mr. Smith by the time you arrive.
4.Harry says he won't wait / won't be waiting for you if you arrive late.
5. I will think/will be thinking about your offer.
Use the continuous -ing version in all those. The simple would sound very strange.
I'd say #4 could use the simple future or the continuous, depending on exactly what you want it to mean.
To me, #5 sounds better with the simple, but could also use the continuous. Again, it depends on exactly what meaning you want to convey.
1. You could have simple future if you didn't have "this time". Compare this to the present tense. You can say "Today I sing", but not "Right now I sing." Rather, it would be "right now I'm singing". Singing is not something that can be completed in any particular moment; it requires an interval of time. Thus, if you're speaking about a particular moment, you have to use the progressive tense. You could, however, say "This time tomorrow I will call you", because it only takes an instant to call someone.
2. Here, I actually think that the future perfect would be best. "By the time they open, she will have shopped in a different store." Future progressive would be second best, and simple future wouldn't work at all.
3. Again, future perfect is best, simple worst, although here simple wouldn't be as bad as it would be in the previous one.
For the last two, I think that simple would be better than progressive.
Another Guest
Why are you putting 2 and 3 into the future perfect? It totally changes the meaning so that the actions have finished whereas they are supposed to still be going on.
In 2, her shopping happens after the sentence is spokens, but BEFORE they open. Thus it's future relative to now, but past relative to the given time frame, hence future perfect is appropriate. Yes, if you really want to indicate an ongoing action, you should use the future progressive, but it makes more sense that the action would be completed. Looking at sentence 3, it would be easy for someone to be confident that they will speak with Mr. Smith before you arrive. But it would be unlikely (albeit possible) that they would know beforehand that they would be speaking with Mr. Smith the exact moment you arrive, unless they expect to be speaking with Mr. Smith for quite a while.