Future facts - will happen or will be happening

Question

Hi! I'm studying the book Destination C1 & C2, which is a Macmillan's book on grammar and vocabulary. In unit 5, they teach future tenses. And in one place they say future simple (will happen) is used to describe future facts (The factory will open in July) and in another one they say that future continuous (will be happening) is used to describe "situations which will happen in the future in the normal course of events" (The company Chairperson will be arriving on Thursday).I can't grasp the difference between the two, it sounds identical to me. I might as well say that the factory will be opening in July and the company Chairperson will arrive on Thursday. Can you help me to understand what the difference is?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Some of these descriptions of the differences between tenses are less than completely accurate, but that's understandable because there are so many uses of each tense that it's nearly impossible to give a brief description that can be easily grasped by a learner.

Andrey BalagutaI can't grasp the difference between the two, it sounds identical to me. I might as well say that the factory will be opening in July and the company Chairperson will arrive on Thursday.

Indeed. You might as well say it with the tenses reversed! These are just examples that were given without context, so that's why you might be able to reverse them. The idea in the examples given is more like this:

If you want to call attention to a fact, say "The factory will open in July" or "The chairperson will arrive on Thursday".
If you want to call attention to an action, say "The factory will be opening in July" or "The chairperson will be arriving on Thursday".

Conversely, if you hear someone say "The factory will open in July" or "The chairperson will arrive on Thursday", you know that the speaker is calling attention to a fact. If you hear someone say, "The factory will be opening in July" or "The chairperson will be arriving on Thursday", you know that the speaker is calling attention to an action.

These are speaker choices in the majority of cases, and not tenses that are required by the situation. Generally speaking, the continuous form is usually taken as "more vivid", "more descriptive", "more active", or "more emotional" than the simple form, which is usually considered "cooler", "more neutral" or "more official".

CJ

Future facts - will happen or will be happening

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