Present simple for the future

Question

Look at these examples:Promise that you won't be late.Make sure that you are there by 2 O'clock.Why does one of these sentences use present simple for the future while the other one doesn't?

Tara668 · Accepted Answer

There are situations where you can speak entirely in the context of another time frame and use the present tense. I'm sorry I don't know the terminology for that, but imagine you're telling a story about something that happened to you before, but you want your listener to live the experience along with you as you tell it.

"I walk into the room and everything is dark. I open the door and something falls to the floor!"

So I used the present tense there even though the event was in the past, right?

Ok, so I think something similar is happening in your second example. The person is telling you something they want you to do entirely in a future context. So imagine similarly, that we set up the environment with something like "tomorrow, as you arrange your schedule"

Make sure that you are there by 2:00.

It is tomorrow that you will be making sure, and it is tomorrow that you are to be there at 2. So since the time frame is the same, we have this option of using present tense verbs.

In your first example, however, the command "promise" is happening now, in the present.

"Promise me now that you won't be late in the future."

So from the present, where you are making the promise, the event where you are not to be late is in the future, so we have to use "will not be late" or "won't be late."

Does that make sense?

Present simple for the future

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