This subject arises in relation to the sentence "I will be going to New York and Los Angles" that I wrote in my blog at QQ. A friend asked me why I did not say "I will go...." or "I am going to go.....". I did not seriously think about the grammar of my sentence at the time. As a matter of fact, I used "I will go...." in the blog at 163.com. The reason that I did not write "I am going to go....." is  that it seems repetitious.

"I will be going......" is a form of the future continuous tense ("CFT"), which according to EnglishClub.com is used to express action at a particular moment in the future. It is said that the following rules apply to the use of CFT:

  1. The action will start before that moment but it will not have finished at that moment. 
  2. When we use CFT, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about.

The example given by EnglishClub.com is that if I will start work at 2pm and stop work at 6pm, I may say "I will be working at 4pm". The listener would understand that I am in the middle of working at 4pm, i.e. I start working before 4pm and will continue beyond that time.
Returning to my sentence, I think FCT is appropriate to express my upcoming trip as I will continue to go from New York to Los Angeles. It would be a long and extended trip. Nonetheless,  I did not follow the second rule applicable to CFT as I did not mention as to the relevant time of my trip. In the circumstances, I will revise my sentence to "I will be going to New York and Los Angeles in June". It is to tell you that I would be in the middle of my trip in June. Further you may expect that I would leave before June and would not finish the trip in June.
I am grateful to my friend for raising the question.

 
]My friend John asked me the following question:

There are two sentences here: “I am supposed to clean my room.” “I should clean my room.” I think the two sentences have the same meaning. That means “be supposed to” and “should” have the same grammatical function. But I am not so positive about that, I still doubt there might be some differences between them. I’d like to know whether they are any differences and how to use them. 

My comments are:
Personally, I think the two are not interchangeable, i.e. not the same. The meanings of the two may vary depending on, among other things, the related contexts and the tone of the speaker. "Should" has a stronger tone and refers to something you are obligated to do. As for "supposed to", it mostly refers to something which others think you are obligated to do so but you feel otherwise.


  • "I should clean the room"- My mother told me to clean the room, but I did not do it. I know it is my duty to do it. I feel sorry for not doing so.
  • "I am supposed to clean the room"- My mother told me to clean the room, but I did not do it. It is only according to my mother I should do it, but I don't think it is my duty to do it.

When you run a stop sign and got stopped by the police, which of the followings you think the police would say to you?


  1. "John, you should stop at the stop sign." or
  2. "You are supposed to stop at the stop sign."

My choice would be Sentence 1. A driver is required by law to stop at the stop sing so he should (!!!) stop not only "supposed to" stop. Besides the former sentence makes the speaker sound more authoritative than the latter.