About to and Bound to

Do you find you’re always using ‘will ‘ and ‘going to’ to talk about the future? Here are two more expressions that native speakers use.

This video was inspired by my son. When he was six, he knew he shouldn’t play with matches, so he went behind the curtains to experiment and the curtains caught fire. I was out at the time and his Dad was in charge. He acted promptly and luckily nobody was injured. But the room was black from the smoke. The curtains were black ash. After the firefighters had left Tom looked at the damage. ‘Oh no’ he said. ‘Mummy is bound to notice’.

Click here to see more verbs we use to talk about the future
Click here for a lesson on due – another verb we use to talk about the future.

About to and Bound to video script

Here are two useful expressions for talking about the future.

Is it raining?
Eh, no, but I think it’s about to.

Use ‘about to’ to talk about things that will happen very soon.

It’s almost nine o’clock. Dancing with the Stars is about to start.
She loves that programme.

So what are you about to do just now? What are you going to do very shortly?

Did you call the doctors?
Uh, I was about to, and then my mother called.
Call them now.

‘Bound to’ is different. Use ‘bound to’ to talk about things you think are certain to be true, or to happen.

This branch has fallen down. Someone’s bound to have an accident if we don’t move it.
I’d like to hire Cecilia.
Me too. She lived in Brazil for ten years, so her Portuguese is bound to be good.
Oh no! That’s Vicki’s favourite cup. Hey, I can fix this. Oh. Vicki’s bound to notice.

Click here to see more verbs we use to talk about the future
Click here for a lesson on due – another verb we use to talk about the future.