Relative Future Tense

Understanding the Relative Future Tense

The relative future tense is used to express an action or state that will occur after another future event. It’s not about absolute future time, but rather the sequence of future occurrences.

Key Concepts

• Sequencing Future Events: It establishes an order for actions in the future.
• Reference Point: The second future event acts as a reference point for the first.
• Contrast with Absolute Future: Differs from simple future tense which refers to any point in the future.

Deep Dive

Consider two future events, Event A and Event B. If Event A happens before Event B, and both are in the future, the tense used for Event A can be the relative future. Often, this involves conditional clauses or temporal conjunctions.

Example: “When she arrives (relative future), we will start the meeting (absolute future).” Here, ‘arrives’ is relative to the future ‘start’.

Applications

This tense is vital in:

• Narratives: To create a clear timeline of future plot points.
• Planning and Scheduling: For defining dependencies between future tasks.
• Conditional Statements: Expressing what will happen based on a future condition.

Challenges & Misconceptions

A common confusion is mistaking the relative future for the simple future. The key is the dependency on another future event. It’s not just ‘will do’ but ‘will do after something else happens’.

FAQs

Q: How is it different from the simple future?
A: The simple future is absolute. The relative future is contextual, dependent on another future point.

Q: What grammatical structures are common?
A: Often uses conjunctions like ‘when’, ‘after’, ‘before’, and verbs in the present tense to indicate future meaning in subordinate clauses.