The Formal Future

• In advanced professional contexts, particularly when discussing strategic plans and time horizons in Seattle or London, we use specific formal structures to talk about scheduled or inevitable future events.
• Structure
• Primary Usage
• Example
• be to
• Official arrangements and instructions
• The CEO is to announce the merger in Boston tomorrow.
• be slated to
• Scheduled events in corporate calendars
• Our San Francisco branch is slated to launch the core platform.
• be poised to
• Ready to happen immediately
• The enterprise team is poised to secure the new patent.
• be on the verge of
• Imminent change or milestone
• Microsoft is on the verge of releasing the updated toolkit.
• be destined to
• Certain or inevitable future outcome
• This architecture is destined to dominate the cloud market.
• Remember
• Use 'be to' for strict official arrangements or commands.
• Use 'be slated to' or 'be expected to' for scheduled corporate timelines.
• Use 'be poised to' when an entity is fully prepared for immediate action.
• Use 'be on the verge of' to describe an event about to happen within moments.
• Examples
• Apple is slated to unveil its new hardware in Cupertino next week.
• Our engineering division is poised to deploy the patch.
• The board is to meet in Chicago to discuss the budget.
• Common mistakes
• We are slated launch the software.
• We are slated to launch the software.
• The firm is on the verge to sign the deal.
• The firm is on the verge of signing the deal.

Complete the sentences

• Oracle (slate) ____ acquire the Austin-based startup next quarter.
• Our team (poise) ____ release the new security update.
• The board (be) ____ convene in New York on Monday.
• IBM (verge) ____ finalising the contract.
• The venture (destine) ____ transform digital banking in London.
• Amazon (expect) ____ expand its cloud servers in Seattle.

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