ABSTRACT
Verb tense formed in English with will+ infinitive: She will come. The future tense characterizes the state of affairs expressed by the utterance as lying temporally after the speech act. In English the present progressive often fulfills this function as well, usually supported by an adverbial element referring to the temporal context: She will come tomorrow vs She is coming tomorrow. The temporal aspect is almost always colored by shades of modality, especially when the future tense is used to express reassurance, command, or suspicion: Everything will turn out fine, You WILL be home by seven, You’ll be wanting the car tonight?
