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1-I will tell him I will go to the cinema.

Here, the event "going cinema" is later than telling. We use future "will" here.

2-I will call you before I arrive.

Although arriving is later than calling, in contrast to the first sentence, we use present simple here. What is the reason of it?

d.alex
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    I think the simplest answer for #2 is a) because that's the way English is, and b) the "present simple" doesn't always refer to something literally happening at the present time; it can also refer to a general phenomenon. For example, "I eat fish" - it doesn't mean I am doing it right now, it just means that it is a thing that happens. – stangdon Apr 20 '17 at 15:13

2 Answers2

1

In the first example, you could change the tense of the verb and the sentence could still make perfect sense. For example, "I will tell him I went to the cinema." At some time in the future, I will tell him that I went to the cinema in the past. There is no problem with the idea of telling someone in the future about something that I did in the past. Likewise, "Tomorrow I will tell him that I am going to the cinema now." Again, there is no problem with telling someone in the future about something I am doing in the present.

In the second example, the word "before" indicates a time sequence. So you can't use verb tenses that contradict that time sequence and have the sentence still make sense. "I will call you tomorrow before I arrived yesterday" makes no sense. You can say, "I will call you before I will arrive", but the extra "will" isn't really necessary because the sequence is already spelled out by the "before".

Jay
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1

The sentence I will tell him (that) I will go to the cinema is an example of reported speech. I will go to the cinema is a reported clause.

The main verb in reported clauses can be in any tense. For example:

  • I will tell him I went to the cinema. (past)
  • I will tell him I plan to go the cinema. (present)

In this case, the cinema visit is in the future, so a future construction is used:

I will tell him I will go the cinema. (future with will)

The second sentence contains a temporal clause, namely before I arrive. As Swan states in Practical English Usage (p99) in the section called present tense with future meaning:

With before, we use a present tense if the meaning is future.

  • I'll telephone you before I come. (not ... before I will come.)
Shoe
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