Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com Language to write about the future in IELTS You will notes on how to use these words and exercises at: writing about the future in IELTS Verb forms verb form example going to The growth of computer technology is going to lead to higher rates of unemployment present continuous The Olympic Games are being held in London in 2012 present simple When everone has a computer, communication is going to be revolutionised Plans and predictions general vocabulary example plan (verb) The government plan to improve the quality of IT training for the non-digital native generation plan (noun) The government’s plans to improve computer literacy are vital if this is to succeed predict (verb) It is predicted that the majority of people will be computer literate by 2010 prediction (noun) It is not possible to make any firm prediction about the level of computer literacy in the near future intend (verb) While many people intend to use the functions of smart phones, in fact they only ever make phone calls with them intention (noun) Despite their best intentions, many people not use all the functions of their smart phones foresee (verb) It is easy to foresee a situation where computers are no longer under our control Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com general vocabulary foreseeable (verb) example It is quite foreseeable that in the future computers will no longer be under human control Modal verbs of probability probability verb example may Computers may one day become truly independent might Artificial intelligence in the future might be far more advanced could It is possible that in the future we could all have household robots Other words of probability probable words example possible/possibility There is a strong possibility that future generations will no longer read books probable/probability The probability is that in 20 years’ time, very few people will write letters to each other likely/likelihood It seems quite likely that education will be transformed by computer technology Time and conditional words time/conditional words example if If computers continue to develop at the same pace, then we are likely to become over-reliant on them when The likelihood is computers will take over our lives, when artificial intelligence improves Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com time/conditional words example once Once artificial intelligence has improved, computers are probably going to be beyond our control as soon as This is going to happen as soon as articial intelligence improves Future collocations future phrases example the near future This is unlikely to happen any time in the near future, but it will take some years, the immediate future While the immediate future may look rosy, longerterms prospects are less certain the long-term future Governments need to look to the long-term future in order to provide for future generations the foreseeable future The print media may disappear in the foreseeable future the future looks bleak The future of the print media looks bleak in face of competition from the internet a bright future What is certain is that the IT industry has a bright future with appropriate investment an uncertain future Many traditional industries have a very uncertain future in the age of computer technology future generations Future generations are almost certain to find new uses for computer technology