Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

Language point 70 – ‘when’, ‘after’,

‘before’ + present

We’ve seen the PRESENT used in English to refer to the FUTURE – in Language point 41 we saw the PRESENT CONTINUOUS used in this way: We’re going to Ibiza next month

and in Language point 48 we saw the PRESENT SIMPLE after What if . . . ?:

What if the bus arrives late?

In Dialogue 5 we can see the present simple again used to express the future, after the time words when, afterand before: after you finish university

when I come back

before you go abroad

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Notice that you must use the present simple for the future in these types of sentences – you can’t use the will-future or the present continuous. So it’s wrong to say:

‘after you’ll finish university’

‘after you’re finishing university’

But you can use the present continuous after when, as Suzie does when she says:

when I’m enjoying myself

when you are making a GENERAL STATEMENT and not referring to the future. Here Suzie is simply talking about something that is a fact

– she doesn’t like thinking about work when she’s enjoying herself

– and is not referring to a future event.

Exercise 8

Choose between whenand beforeto complete the sentences.

1

Don’t forget to phone us _____ you get home.

2

I’ll have a word with Henry ____ I see him.

3

Hide Ann’s birthday present ____ she comes in!

4

Do you think Dave’ll be surprised _____ he sees us?

5

We’ll need to show our passports _____ we fly.

6

It’ll be quieter in the town centre ____ the shops shut.

7

Gerry’ll show us his holiday photos ____ he gets back.

8

We’ve got to buy some milk ____ the shops shut!

Exercise 9

Listen to the audio and match the times and places to the people.

Time

Place

ADRIAN

7.30

pub

SAMANTHA

____

____

SU AND SHAMIRA

____

____

STUART

____

____

HELEN

____

____

GERRY

____

____

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cinema

7.00

pub

7.45

football match

6.30

vegan restaurant

7.30

Indian restaurant

6.45

theatre

7.15

Phrasal verbs

ask round– ‘invite to your home’.

come over– we say, for example, When are you coming over?if we want to know when someone is arriving at our home for a visit – it can be from far away, or from next door. In the same way, Come over tomorrowmeans ‘Come and visit us at home tomorrow’.

end up– in Unit 5 we saw that we can use this phrasal verb to talk about the last in a series of visits to places ; in this unit it is used to talk about the last in a series of actions .

show up– ‘arrive, appear’.

sort out– ‘arrange’.

turn up– ‘arrive, appear’ (same as show up).

wake up– ‘stop sleeping’; ‘wake from sleep’.

Life and living – holidays

If you’re going on holiday, you need to be able to say when you’re going. Here are the names of the monthsin English, with the number of days each one has:

January(31)

July(31)

February(28 or 29)

August(31)

March(31)

September(30)

April(30)

October(31)

May(31)

November(30)

June(30)

December(31)

February usually has 28 days, but has an extra dayevery fourth year, which we call a leap year.

We say in Januarybut on January the third(or on the third of January).

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And here are the names of the four seasonsthat we have in Britain:

spring

autumn/`ɔtəm/

summer

winter

We say in springor in the spring, and we say last spring, this spring, next springand during the spring.

Holiday/`hɔldεi/ means ‘a time when we don’t work’, but there are different kinds of holiday.

Many people have a holiday every year (or more than once a year if they can affordit) when they go away from home for a period of perhaps one to three weeks, usually in the summer. You can ask someone:

Where are you going on holiday this year?

or

Where are you going on/ for your holidays this year?

We say on holiday, but we say either on your holidaysor for your holidays.

The schools in Britain have three setsof holidays: the Christmas holidays

(late December to early January)

the Easter holidays

(late March or early April)

the summer holidays

(late July to early September)

These are periods when the schools close. Of these, the summer holidays are the longest, with schoolchildren having about six weeks off. Sometimes they will have single days off during term-time – we call these days offrather than holidays.

We also have bank holidays in Britain – these are one-day holidays (usually a Monday) when banks and government departmentsdon’t open and certain serviceseither don’t operateor operate at a reducedlevel. Small shops often don’t open either on bank holidays, but large supermarketsand department storesusually do nowadays.

Glossary

afford– have enough money to buy

off– away from work or school

term– each of the three periods in the year when the schools are open and schoolchildren must attend

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government departments– offices run by the government rather than by private companies

services– trains, buses, rubbish collection – things we pay for with our taxes

operate– work, function

reduced– lower

supermarket– large shop selling all kinds of food and sometimes other things as well

department store– a very large shop, often on many floors, that sells all kinds of things, including clothes, kitchen equipment, food, toys

12 You can’t be