BUDLING
All grammar topics
Share

Advanced Future Forms

2 min
C1
CEFR C1·tenses

Formula

The president
is
to visit
the factory next week
The meeting
is
about to
start
The flight
is
due to
depart
at 9pm
The company
is
on the verge of
collapsing
Prices
are
bound to
rise

Examples

Positive
The Prime Minister is to announce new measures tomorrow.
Negative
The talks are not due to resume until next week.
Question
Is the company about to file for bankruptcy?

Common Time Markers

tomorrow
next week
shortly
imminently
at any moment

Usage

  • •'be to' — formal announcements, official schedules, itineraries, and instructions (news reports, press releases, timetables)
  • •'be about to' — something will happen in the very next moment, with no time marker needed
  • •'be due to' — something is scheduled or expected according to a plan or timetable
  • •'be on the verge of' + gerund — something is right on the brink of happening, often a dramatic or sudden change
  • •'be bound to' — strong speaker certainty about an outcome, based on logic or evidence rather than a schedule

More Examples

  • The Queen is to open the new hospital wing on Friday.

    Formal announcement of a scheduled royal engagement

  • Hurry up — the train is about to leave!

    Immediate future, happening in seconds

  • The report is due to be published later this month.

    Scheduled/expected event with no fixed exact date

  • After months of losses, the firm is on the verge of bankruptcy.

    A dramatic negative outcome is imminent

  • If he keeps spending like that, he's bound to run out of money.

    Speaker's confident prediction based on logic

  • Talks between the two governments are not due to resume until the autumn.

    Negative form, scheduled event postponed

Common Mistakes

  • ✗Using 'be to' in casual speech instead of formal/news contexts — it sounds stiff among friends ('I'm to meet Dave later' → say 'I'm meeting Dave later').
  • ✗Adding a time marker after 'be about to' ('I'm about to leave tomorrow') — it only works for the immediate moment, drop 'tomorrow'.
  • ✗Forgetting 'of' + gerund after 'on the verge' ('on the verge to cry' → 'on the verge of crying').
  • ✗Confusing 'due to' the future form with 'due to' the preposition meaning 'because of' — 'The delay was due to weather' is a different structure entirely.

Tips

  • ✓'be about to' and 'be on the verge of' both mean 'any second now' — but 'on the verge of' fits big, dramatic turning points, while 'about to' works for anything trivial too.
  • ✓'be due to' signals a plan or timetable someone set — if there's no schedule behind it, use 'be bound to' or 'be about to' instead.
  • ✓'be bound to' is about the speaker's certainty, not a fixed time — pair it with logic ('he's bound to notice eventually'), not with clock times.

Advanced Notes

These forms sit above 'will' and 'going to' in formality and precision, and native speakers reach for them to signal exactly how imminent, scheduled, or certain a future event is. 'Be to' dominates news headlines and official itineraries but sounds oddly formal in everyday conversation; 'be about to' and 'be on the verge of' both compress the future down to 'right now', with the latter reserved for higher-stakes turning points. 'Be due to' quietly implies a timetable someone else set, which is why it's the natural choice for flights, deliveries, and reports, while 'be bound to' drops the schedule entirely and instead expresses the speaker's own confident logic about what must happen.

Quiz loads as you scroll…