Using JUST for Actions in the Near Future Basic English Grammar
hi everybody my name is Alisha in this
lesson I’m going to talk about how to
use the word just to talk about actions
that are going to happen in the future
very very soon so let’s get started in
this lesson though I’m going to use a
timeline to show actions that start or
are going to start in the future the
very recent future and actions which
perhaps have already started but are
going to finish in the very near future
so I’m going to do this by explaining to
maybe common patterns that we can use
with just to explain these sorts of
events before I start that though I do
want to just do a quick reminder about
the word just so we use the word just as
I’m going to explain in these example
sentences as kind of an emphasis word we
use it to emphasize an activity or an
action that’s very very close to the
present time so something that could be
in the past or something that could be
in the future we can use just for both
of these in this lesson I’m going to
focus on actions that are in the future
so let’s begin with the first example
pattern okay the first pattern that I
have here is a subject plus a version of
the verb to be plus just plus the word
just and then about so about is going to
give us even more emphasis about
something that’s going to happen in the
future very very near to the future then
we follow this with a two form of the
verb or the infinitive form of the verb
to plus the verb finally we’ll end the
sentence with any extra information that
you may need to include so let’s look at
a couple of examples of this this
pattern the first one we are just about
to leave the house here my subject is we
my be verb is our in this case to match
the subject here the same pattern just
about two and then my
verb here is leave just about to leave
the house so in this situation we the
people in the subject of the sentence
are very very soon going to leave the
house this is an action that’s going to
happen soon we are just about to leave
the house so here we pair just with
about before the verb let’s look at
another example here my subject is she
so she is in this case is is the form of
the be verb
she is just about to start the meeting
so in this case the meeting is going to
start very soon in the future one more
example sentence I am in this case M is
my be verb I am just about to have
dinner so this means in the fit in the
very near future I am going to have
dinner so each of these sentences
communicates an action that has not
started yet but in the very near future
it’s going to start or it’s going to
happen so on a timeline we can imagine
if this is the present point here in the
middle and this is my future we can
imagine that these actions are going to
happen very very soon in the future so
something that’s going to start sooner
an action that’s going to occur soon we
can use this kind of pattern to talk
about that okay so let’s take a look at
the second pattern that I prepared this
one is perhaps a little bit less common
than this pattern but I want to
introduce it for a couple of different
reasons so let’s take a look at the
pattern first so similar to the first
pattern we have the subject of the
sentence plus B plus just however after
this just I have the ing form of the
verb this is the continuous form or the
progressive form of the verb following
that we have just any extra information
you may need to communicate so let’s
take a look at a few examples here I’ve
actually just changed these sentences
into this pattern here so again we have
this we are just as I did here we
are in this case just plus my verb my to
verb from this sentence to leave becomes
leaving in the continuous tense we are
just leaving the house is my first
pattern so this sentence actually shows
that perhaps the speaker was already in
the action was already in the process of
leaving the house however the action is
not yet complete let’s look at another
example though she is just starting the
meeting here so again my first sentence
in this pattern was she is just about to
start the meeting meaning it’s going to
start in the future here she is just
starting the meeting shows maybe she in
the sentence the subject has just
recently very very recently started the
process of the meeting and she is maybe
doing introductory remarks in this case
or introducing the agenda for some house
she’s in the process of beginning the
meeting but that beginning process is
not finished yet okay let’s look at one
more example I am just having dinner so
here I had to have in the first pattern
in this sentence with the progressive or
the continuous tense I have haven’t here
so I’m just having dinner so in other
words I’m probably in the process of
eating right now but I am not finished
yet so the difference between this
pattern and this pattern is that these
actions have already started but they
are not quite finished yet rather
they’re going to be finished in the near
future this is kind of the nuance of
this grammar so to visualize this a
little bit differently from our first
pattern we can imagine that these are
actions which in the present at the
point in time when the speaker explains
things the actions are in progress at
this point in time however they are not
finished yet in the future however in
the near future they’re going to be
finished so this is sort of the
difference between these two one action
as in the first pattern we looked at is
going to happen in the near future one
action down
here in the second pattern is already in
progress but it’s going to finish in the
near future so this is a very very small
difference I think but if you like if
you want to emphasize that something is
already happening you can use the
progressive form to do that
okay so I have just yeah a couple of
quick sort of summaries of each of these
points that you can consider so point
one is for near future actions it’s
going to start and maybe finish in the
near future the second one is for
actions that have started and will
complete in the near future so some of
you might be wondering like what about
using past tense like the verb be here
I’ve used the present tense here what
about using past tense or how do I talk
about something that already started or
something that was in the past I’ll
explain that in a separate lesson in a
different lesson so please keep an eye
out for that
but if you want to talk about actions
that are going to start soon or that
have already started and are going to
finish soon you can try using one of
these patterns to explain that all right
so just a few points and a few patterns
for how you can use just to explain
actions that are coming up so I hope
that this lesson was useful for you if
you have any questions please be sure to
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good resources thanks very much for
watching this video and I will see you
again next time bye
you