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1.

How many tenses are there in English?

The answer largely depends on where you stand and could come up to 16 or even more. To start off, try to determine which tenses these examples are.

· He used to stay at home a lot.
· He would stay at home a lot.
· He would like to stay at home.
· He is going to stay at home.
· He might be staying at home.
· He won’t stay at home whatever I say.

Chances are, you’ll be confused as they quite don’t fit in with the conventional table of tenses you were taught at school. Not even the last one since it means "he refuses to stay at home" and therefore cannot be referred to as Future Simple. Future Simple is supposed to be about the future, isn’t it?

Moreover, terms like Present Perfect or Past Continuous will ring no bell with the majority of even educated native speakers, at least, no more than 'pluperfect' (the technical term for Past Perfect) does with us.

2.

There’s no such thing as the Future tense in English. Why? Because WILL is a modal verb, and modal verbs will always carry an extra shade of meaning with them.

WILL is a Germanic verb, as Germanic as the German WOLLEN, which means TO WANT:

Field practice

In case you need more proof, here are some related words:

3.

1) to formally give your property or possessions to sb after you have died (REGULAR VERB)

• His grandma had willed him everything she possessed.

2) (Simple Present only): to want or like

• Do what you will, I don’t care.

3) Obligation (stronger than must)

• All staff will submit their reports on time.

Compare: All staff must submit their reports on time.

4) Deduction

• Don’t call him now. He'll be in a meeting.

Compare: He's definitely in a meeting. OR He must be in a meeting.

5) Typical behaviour

• She will sit in her bedroom alone feeling sorry for herself.

Btw, WOULD is the past form of WILL.
Compare: He would get up at 6 every day. (= used to regularly get up)

6) Request

• Will you hold the door for me, please?

7) Willingness or refusal (here WILL is particularly close to WANT in its meaning)

• She will keep silent.
• The lock won’t open.

You probably know these lines by Sir Paul McCartney:

• Why she had to go // I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. (= she refused to say)

If you are familiar with real-life English, you will have heard the phrase 'Why would you/he/she etc do/say/think etc that?" Normally, it means the same as 'Why did you/he/she etc do/say/think etc that?"

Let’s google one variation of it to see which is more common.

"Why would you do that?" — 18M results
"Why did you do that?" — 12.7M results

4.

Here are some set phrases with WILL that have nothing to do with the future meaning:

• That will do! (= that’s enough)

• Accidents will happen. (= accidents cannot but happen)

• Boys will be boys. (= boys are boys, no matter how old they are)

• When the cat’s away, the mice will play. (= the mice always play)

• Wonders will never cease! (= wonders cannot but happen, a sarcastic remark meant to undermine one’s achievement)

5.

future meaning

WILL does express the future meaning, but it’s not even the most frequent way to do so. Let’s ask Google again.

6.

Wiretapping

A short video including genuine wildlife examples of usage:

END OF THE GUIDE

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