The principal of your school is correct in a rather loose and imprecise way that the English language doesn’t have a future tense. It does have a future tense, of course; it’s just that English verbs can’t inflect or change in form for the future tense. For by some quirk in the development of the English grammar structures, verbs in English can inflect only for the past, present, and perfect tenses.
To compensate for this structural handicap, though, the English language had come up with no less than six ways of reckoning with the future. The first two are the
simple future tense and the
future perfect tense. As we all know, the simple future tense puts the auxiliary verb “will” ahead of the verb stem, as in “will give” in the future-tense sentence “She
will give you the funds later.” On the other hand, the future perfect tense uses the so-called temporal indicators to situate actions and events in various times in the future, as in the use of the future perfect “will have given” in the following sentence: “By this time next week, she
will have given me the funds she promised.” In both forms of the future tense, the verb “give”—instead of inflecting itself or changing in form—harnesses the auxiliary verb “will” or the auxiliary verb pair “will have” (plus the past participle “given”), respectively, to evoke the future.
On top of these two basic future-tense forms, English had actually come up with four more grammatical forms to convey the sense of the future. These grammatical forms evoke the future by appending to the main verb particular combinations of auxiliary verbs in different tenses. I have discussed these future-tense forms in detail in an essay of mine that I posted in the Forum on November 25, 2011 under the heading “Though very rich and diverse, English can’t inflect for the future tense.”
So go tell your teacher that it’s not really correct to say that English has no future tense. Quote me as having clarified that although English verbs are constitutionally unable to inflect for the future tense, there are actually six functional ways of making them evoke the future tense. Better still, suggest to him or her to register as a member of the Forum to get direct access to its wealth of instruction about English grammar and usage.
FURTHER READING ON THE FUTURE TENSE:The six ways that English reckons with the future
