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Is it correct to use will twice in the following sentence?

When you will come to see me we will have dinner together.

Ehtesham
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  • Isn't this essentially the same question as this: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/40913/why-do-i-instinctively-want-to-use-the-present-tense-with-a-conditional/ – Neil Coffey Sep 08 '11 at 15:44
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    Will will will Will what Will's will's wills will will. (William will bequeath another Willaim whatever his bequeathment's listed desires will bequeath.) – tdhsmith Sep 09 '11 at 00:22

4 Answers4

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There is no general rule against using "will" twice in the same sentence. However, your sentence is incorrect because adverbial clauses with when do not usually use the modal will. To indicate future time within a when-clause, use the simple present:

When you come to see me, we will have dinner together.

JSBձոգչ
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Words like will are often repeated for emphasis. In addition, the repeated word is often emphasized vocally:

You will come to see me, we will have dinner, and I will convince you to move back here.

Is that what you're thinking of? If so, you can get the same effect by dropping the first will in your sentence and emphasizing when instead:

"I hope I make it back here," she said. "I'd like to see you again."

"Not if, but when," I said confidently. "When you come to see me, we will have dinner together."

Caleb
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    I don't think OP was thinking of that at all - his first "will" was just bad grammar. Your point is interesting and apposite, but I can't upvote it because you don't answer the question as I understand it. – FumbleFingers Sep 08 '11 at 21:26
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    I may well have misunderstood. In the OP's version, both wills are bold, so the anaphoric emphasis seemed intentional. – Caleb Sep 08 '11 at 21:30
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    haha I see your point. We are indeed conditioned to have our "inner voice" place stress on words in bold/italic/quotes. – FumbleFingers Sep 08 '11 at 21:32
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You could say, "Oh, when WILL you come to see me; we'll have dinner together then." but that's really stretching it. The semicolon should be a question mark, the contraction should not be used and if you want to get technical, I believe you are to substitute the word "shall" for "will" as in "Oh, when WILL you come to see me? We shall have dinner together."

RonKyle
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Drop the first will or it is just ugly, no need for the punctuation mark or the we. The we is implicit.

Bogdan Lataianu
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tim
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    Are you advocating that the sentence should be "When you come to see me will have dinner together"? — uh, no. – ghoppe Sep 08 '11 at 17:00
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    Perhaps you mean "When you come to see me we'll have dinner together"? The we* is still there, just contracted with will. – Caleb Sep 08 '11 at 21:31
  • Doesn't the following sentence sound better, We will have dinner together when you come to see me? And it also has no comma in it. :) – woodykiddy Sep 09 '11 at 16:19