Learning English

In the news

Look at these headlines and stories from the BBC News website. They all share a particular grammar form, which is highlighted in bold. What can you learn about the form and how to make it from these examples? Can you answer these questions?

Are all the sentences about something in the past, something in the present or something in the future?
How do you make this form?
Why is the form of the last example different?

REM announce they are to split. (22 September 2011)

Beyonce says Destiny's Child are to release new song. (10 January 2013)

International medical aid teams are to arrive in eastern Sierra Leone to try to deal with an outbreak of the deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus. (29 May 2014)

The Prince of Wales is to visit the Republic of Ireland next month. (21 April 2015)

One Direction: NI fans react to news that the band are to 'take a break'. (24 August 2015)

First Great Western rail workers are to stage strikes. (3 August 2015)

Human rights lessons are to be offered to schools in England. (14 September 2015)

What is the form used for?

Did you work it out? They are all about something in the future.

Now look again and try to answer this question:

Are they about informal future plans or formal future arrangements?

They are formal future arrangements.

This form is used when there is an announcement about something in the future. Often it will be an official announcement that is released in the media.

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How is the form made?

By looking at the examples you can see that is made like this:

subject + be + infinitive with to

The last story is a little bit different as it is the passive. In this case the form is:

subject + be + to be + infinitive with to

Headlines

This form is often in written news headlines. In the headlines it is very common to leave out the verb to be.

REM to split
One Direction to take break
Prince of Wales to visit the Republic of Ireland
Human Rights lessons to be offered to schools (passive)

Giving orders

The be + infinitive with to form is also used to give orders.

No one is to leave the building.
Phones are not to be taken into the exam.
Students are to wear uniforms at all times.

About to

The be + infinitve with to form is used with about to say that something is going to happen in the near future.

You'd better run, the bus is about to leave.
Careful, you'reabout to lose your wallet, it's coming out of your pocket.
They'reabout to call our flight, we should go to the gate.

To do

In this session we've looked at different uses of two future forms. In the exercise, can you choose the best one to use in each situation?

Next

Well done if you got all those right. Now sit back, relax and listen to 6 Minute Grammar as Catherine and Callum discusss these future forms.