This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2568.
We'll see what happens with this English grammar.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Hey there, Aubrey.
Doing well, doing well.
What about you?
I've been thinking about the future a little bit lately, mostly because I watched Pluribus on Apple TV.
Have you seen that yet, Lindsay?
I know I recommended it.
I know it's on my list.
You need to watch it.
I can't wait to talk to you about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's on our list.
It's on our list.
But I am wondering, what about you?
Do you often think about the future?
Or do you live in the moment more?
Yeah, I do.
So when we took StrengthsFinder, one of my top five strengths quote unquote was I don't know if it's called futurist or futuristic, but I do think a lot.
I feel like I spend a lot of time thinking about the future, kind of.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Some people do and some people less.
A little bit, but we got a great question from Pei Yao in our community, one of our amazing students.
And we're going to dive into grammar a little bit, answering her amazing question.
Yeah.
And, by the way, if you're wondering what the community is, when you join any one of our courses, you get automatic access and membership in our community, where you can ask questions about your course, connect with other students, find out the schedule for live speaking events and other things like that.
It's an amazing community, supportive, active, so many awesome students.
Hopefully all of you out there will have a chance to join, take a course so that you can join the community and get to know all of these amazing members.
Yeah.
And I love that Payout asked this question, I guess, was it based on an episode?
Yes, it was about an All Ears English episode.
Okay.
So here's the question.
I wonder why Lindsay said we'll see what happens Instead of we'll see what will happen on the podcast.
Can you please explain?
I love this question.
I'm not surprised we got this question.
It's a great one, Aubrey.
Yes.
And Peyo is always asking amazing questions, diving into the grammar and the why of things.
And this is a great one.
So I'm excited. to answer this question here today with you guys and give you all of the specifics.
Because whether you think a lot about the future or not, we often use the future tense in this way.
Oh, for sure.
It's a very common chunk, right?
We'll see what happens.
So, break down the grammar for us, Aubrey.
Let's do the hard part first.
Yes.
Right.
So the top line present tense is used in subordinate clauses when the main clause is in the future tense, even though both actions refer to the future.
So that's the bottom line.
We're going to give you lots of examples here.
And when we do this right with time clauses, with conditional clauses, because we do this in a lot more than just, we'll see what happens.
There are lots of phrases where we do this.
Yeah, let's take a look at this, at how other places we do it, so then we can draw those similarities and really understand what we're saying.
But before we do any of that, guys make sure you hit the follow button.
If you're listening in Apple Podcasts or Spotify,
If you're over on YouTube, which you might be for this episode, go ahead and hit subscribe, right?
If you prefer to learn visually, that's a valid way to learn in 2026.
Yes, absolutely.
I've gotten into YouTube a little more lately.
There's some awesome French channels.
There are so many resources on YouTube.
So yeah, if you're more of a visual learner, go watch the podcast on YouTube.
For sure.
I love that idea.
All right, let's break it down.
So we have a few different places, things that we need to talk about.
First, time clauses, Aubrey.
Tell us about this.
Yeah, these are all the times where we do this.
So time clauses that start with For example, after, before, when, while, as soon as, or until.
So, for example, I'll call you when I arrive.
So, we would not say, I'll call you when I will arrive.
Instead, we use the present tense.
When I arrive.
Present simple.
Yep.
Though I have heard this mistake quite a lot.
It's a very common mistake.
Yes.
Not after today's episode, though.
Right?
Yeah.
We'll start the meeting after everyone gets here, not after everyone will get here, right?
Exactly.
So that first main clause is in the future.
And then that subordinate clause is in the present tense.
Or another example. she'll let you know as soon as she finds out.
So of course that contraction means she will let you know.
We often squish that together.
She'll let you know as soon as, so there's our time clause signpost word.
And then as soon as she finds out would be in present simple tense.
All right.
So time clauses are one of the three buckets where we utilize this.
We don't use the will, right?
We don't need it.
We just need the present tense for the second part.
What would be another bucket of situations?
Yeah.
So the second one is conditional clauses.
So our signpost words to trigger this are if unless, provided that there are more.
But those which trigger the conditional
It's conditional on something else.
Okay.
So for example, if it rains, we'll stay home, right?
Not if it will rain, we'll stay home.
That would be strange.
No, that would be strange, right?
And of course, you can flip this.
We'll stay home if it rains.
Often with these clauses, the order doesn't matter.
But what does matter is which one has the future tense and which one has the present tense.
Okay, what else?
All right, you'll miss the bus unless you hurry.
Of course, you could say, unless you hurry, you'll miss the bus.
But it must be, you will miss the bus.
That's in future.
But you hurry, present tense.
Present tense.
We're not putting a will in there again.
It doesn't need to be put in there.
Next one, we'll go ahead, provided that everyone agrees.
I could hear this at work, right?
All right.
We'll begin the meeting, provided that everyone is on board, that everyone agrees.
Love it.
And then the third bucket is purpose.
Right.
So what do we mean by purpose?
Yeah.
So these will be triggered by, for example once, once something happens, or in case in case something happens.
So this is all about purpose.
They're a clause that's it's condition like, but the words that are triggering this are once and in case.
So for example, once you feel better, we'll go for a walk.
Yeah, we're not saying once you will feel better.
We're saying once you feel better.
So half the sentence is in present, half the sentence is in future, right?
Yeah, or the whole idea.
Exactly.
Go ahead.
Yeah, that's smart.
Yeah, I was gonna say the whole idea is in the future, of course, right?
Just because that other part of it isn't in the future.
What you're talking about is when you feel better.
That's happening in the future.
Exactly.
The grammar is interesting here because really, I definitely understand Peao's question.
It does seem like it would make more sense to have them both be in the future, because we're talking about the future.
But that's not how this works.
English is never that simple.
Exactly.
So one more example for that one.
I'll take water bottles in case they allow us to take in drinks.
So my future clause there, I will take water bottles later tomorrow when I go in the future.
In case and then it's going to be followed by present simple.
They allow us to take in drinks.
What does in case mean?
What exactly are we saying?
We're not sure if they're going to allow that, but there's a possibility that they will.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
So it's still sort of a condition, but it's more about the purpose, like the purpose.
I would bring these water bottles for the purpose of taking them in if I'm allowed.
Right.
Yes.
Love it.
So good.
All right.
So those are the three buckets.
When we come back from the break, we'll take a look at a role play.
Right.
Yeah.
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All right.
Back from break.
So what are we doing in this role play, Aubrey?
What's happening here?
All right.
You and I are eating, meeting up for lunch here, Lindsay.
I'll start us out.
Okay.
I'll text you when I'm on my way.
Perfect.
We'll probably wait and order food after everyone arrives, though.
Sounds good.
Are you planning on eating outside?
I saw that it might rain.
Oh, no.
I didn't think to check the weather.
That's okay.
If it rains, we'll just move inside.
Nice.
It shouldn't last long.
Once it stops, we can still do a fire pit if everyone is up for it.
This reminds me there's a really fun restaurant here near where I live where they have fire pits.
You can order food and have a drink and your meal surrounding a fire pit.
It's a really cool and it's all sand.
It's kind of meant to like replicate a beach.
It's so cool.
I love that.
I love fire pits.
I love having fires, campfires.
It's the best thing, you know?
Yeah.
So, all right.
So you say to me, I'll text you when I'm on my way.
Right.
So I don't see any will in the second part of that sentence.
Exactly right.
I will text you.
When is our time signpost word?
And then after that, present simple.
I am on my way.
Nice.
And then I said, perfect.
We'll probably wait and order food after everyone arrives, though.
So another time post word there, signpost word after.
Yeah, we will probably wait.
We'll probably wait in future.
And then after everyone arrives, present simple.
All right.
And then what did I say?
Talking about rain.
If it rains, we'll just move inside.
So if it rains, present simple, we will move inside.
And again, not using will twice in that sentence, only using it once, right?
Exactly.
And that's the conditional clause triggered by that.
If it rains, we'll move inside.
And then you said nice.
It shouldn't last long.
Once it stops, we can still do a fire pit if everyone is up for it.
Yes.
Yeah.
And we have that once triggering.
Again, we've got the present there.
It stops.
And then after the next clause is in future, we can still do a fire pit or we will still do a fire pit.
Yeah.
That's a good thing about living in the West.
It rains rarely, but when it does rain, it rains for a short period of time.
We don't have rainy days in the West.
Wouldn't you agree with that, Aubrey?
Usually not.
In Arizona.
Unless it's monsoon season, then sometimes there will be like longer periods of rain, but usually it's like a quick little drizzle and then it's done.
Yeah, just wait five minutes and you can go outside and then the sun comes back out in color.
I remember when i lived on the east coast.
It's like no, this is a rainy day.
That means you wake up, it's raining, it's gonna be raining all day, all night.
Right absolutely, new york.
If i went to work and it was raining, it was going to be raining when i left, probably.
Yeah yeah yeah, it's true, it's true, All right.
Great role play.
Aubrey, where else can our listeners go right now to keep learning with us?
Yeah.
If you missed a recent episode, 2561 was how to blow open your English vocabulary.
We did a three part series with these amazing phrasal verbs.
There are so many with the verb blow.
So be sure to check that out if you missed it.
Yeah.
And so for a final takeaway, I mean, first of all, I love that our student payout asked that question.
So smart.
This is a common mistake I hear frequently.
So guys, listen again to the episode to make sure you're not making this mistake moving forward.
And anything else our listeners should keep in mind in terms of connection?
Aubrey?
Yeah, this is interesting because, yes, it's about knowing the grammar.
But it's also about observing language.
You might not be making this mistake, because you've heard it correct, used correctly, so many times in the podcasts and TV shows that you're listening to.
The more you are taking in English, the more you're going to do this kind of thing correctly, because native speakers don't make this error often luckily,
So you can just by observing and shadowing language do this correctly.
Kind of through osmosis a little bit, right?
Exactly.
Soak it in.
Soak it in.
Really good stuff.
But again, it comes down to consumption, to input, right?
Taking in.
And a good way to do that is, first of all, start off by hitting follow on the show.
So you get All There's English five days a week if you're not already getting that.
All right.
Great.
All right.
We'll see you next time, Aubrey.
Thanks for being on the show.
See you next time.
Bye.
All right.
Bye.
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