Tenses


(SriLanka)

I saw following things in a article.


Wafaa Bilal had a tiny camera implanted into the back of his head. The camera will take a photograph every single minute. The images will then be beamed from New York.

Here, can’t I use the simple present tense instead of will. And also could you tell me why they use “will” here?

Comments for Tenses

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Jan 10, 2011
 Answer
by: Ola Zur

First of all,

MY GOD. Why did he do that?...

It sounded like science fiction at first, but then I looked into this and it's a true story. I hope we won't all end up like this in a few dozens of years? (You know, fully monitored?)

Anyway, back to English.

That is a good question, and here is the answer:

"Will" can be used to describe intentions.

For example:
I will come --> The person intends to come.
They will join us later --> They intend to join us later.
The camera will take a photo every minute --> The intention is that the camera will take a photo every minute. This is the plan.

For more data: The simple future tesne.

They could have used the simple present tense instead.

Ola Zur is the editor of www.really-learn-english.com, an illustrated guide to English.

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