Although Bernard normally....MGMAT SC 5th edition

[krishnaprashanth2004]

SC 5th edition: Verb Tense, Mood & Voice chapter Question 1: Although Bernard normally is eating in expensive foods, and indeed is eating a hot dog right now, he is eating lobster and steak at tomorrow's party.

My question is why is the the third "is eating" specificaly change to Simple Future. I am trying to figure out and I understand that I should change it to future tense but i am not sure why it should be simple future over progressive future.

Simple future Tense is used to indicate a eternal future event or a frequent future event.

Prog future tense is used to indicate an ongoing future event.

The solution in books says the answer is "will eat" (simple future tense) which makes sense but I also think "will be eating" (Prog future tense) also makes sense.

I need to know why pick one over the other.

An example in page 104 of the test books uses prog future tense as:
Sandy will be playing soccer tomorrow.

This suggests a future event but in not necessarily a ongoing future event. So I am confused. Please help.

[geezer0305]

The future progressive/continuous emphasizes two things:-
1. a relative time of the action
2. the action is in progress during that that "time"

My take on the MGMAT question:
If we want to convey that the action will happen and that it will be in progress during some time in the future ( eg: "the party" in the MGMAT question), we can make use of the future progressive tense. However, by doing so, we would be implying that Bernard "will be" eating the lobster throughout the duration of the party.

Hence, it would be better to use a simple future tense which just conveys that bernard would eat the lobster sometime tomorrow.

i hope this helps.

Regards,
geezer

[tim]

let us know if there are further questions on this one..