Making arrangements
Think about these points when the purpose of your email is to make an arrangement.
Useful questions
Here are some typical questions used for making arrangements:
- Are you free next Tuesday afternoon?
- What time would you like to meet?
- When would be convenient for you?
- Could you please let me know?
Expressions of time
Use on with days: Could we meet on Monday?
Use in with months, years and other expressions: I'm going to visit my grandparents in October.
Use at with times and other expressions: Could you please call me at 3pm?
Use next to refer to future times: I hope we can meet again next week.
Use when to start a future time clause: Let's meet again when it is convenient.
Tenses
To speak about a timetable, use the present simple: Next term runs from 1 September until 16 December.
To speak about a future arrangement, use the present continuous: Mr Toshiko is coming to our next meeting.
To speak about a plan, use 'be going to': Next term we are going to learn about pollution.
See the talking about the future page for more practice.
Tenses in complex sentences about the future
Use the present simple after when, if and next time in future time clauses:
- I will call you when I get to the station.
- I'm going to work with my dad when I finish school.
- Let's go for a walk if the weather is good.
- Will you visit the Eiffel Tower next time you are in Paris?
Comments
Hello ali shah,
These are participle clauses – they can also be reduced relative clauses – and yours are all grammatically correct – good work!
Participle clauses are not very common in informal speaking and writing. In these contexts, people often use 'and' and another verb instead, e.g. 'John kicked the girl and injured her left knee'. Yes, sometimes you can use 'which' to create a full relative clause from a reduced one. For example, your second sentence would become 'Congress passed the new tariff act, which will increase the prices of imported goods.'
Although participle clauses are used quite regularly in more formal writing or speaking, I'd say we tend not to use too many of them for stylistic reasons. I'm afraid it's difficult to describe this more specifically. I think the best thing for you to do to learn this is to pay attention as you read in English. As you see them used, you should get a better sense for how and when they are used. And of couse you can ask us if ever have a specific question about one.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
hi guys- I am reviewing grammar rules for the last few days , can I please ask would it be wrong to use "will" for future arrangements? example: Jason will move to New York next week. I read on another site that we "should never use will to say what somebody has arranged or decided to do in the future". So if I use "will" would it be consider as grammatically wrong? Please help? Thanks
Hello SonyE,
People would understand you, but it wouldn't be correct to use 'will' in this way to describe a planned action. I don't know the context, but I suppose that Jason has planned this move. If he hasn't planned the move and you are making a prediction, then using 'will' would be correct.
Please see our talking about the future page for a general review of the forms we most commonly use to speak about the future.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello! I was wondering about the usage of 'until'. If I say, "I would be out of office until 3 Dec", does it mean that I would not be available in my office on 3 Dec and implies that I would be back after 3 Dec, or I would be out of office but be back on 3 Dec?
Look forward to receiving your advice! Thanks a lot!
Hello Evachi,
There are discussions on the internet which argue for 'until' being inclusive or exclusive, and this just shows that there is no consistency in how people use the word! In other words, ometimes people use 'until' + a date to include the date, and other times people use it to mean before that date.
For your email, I would recommend saying something like 'I will be out of the office from 1 to 4 Dec, returning on 5 Dec' or 'I am out of the office and will be back on 5 Dec'.
Does that make work?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Is it correct to say 'met' instead of 'meet' in this sentence? It would help me greatly if we met at the Grand Hotel on Wednesday the 13th.
Hello Julia,
Yes, actually 'met' is the best form here, as this sentence uses a second conditional structure.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello,
In Task 2 of this lesson there is a question :
Perhaps we can meet in the evening ?
I think the correct question form is: Perhaps can we meet in the evening? isn't it ?
Thank you for you answer
Hello Last biker,
Good question! This is a declarative question, in other words, a question with affirmative sentence word order instead of question sentence word order. This way of asking questions is more common in speech than in writing, but it can be used there, and suggests that you think the answer will be 'yes'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you for these useful tasks.
Pages