The Future in the Past

• We use the future in the past to talk about plans, intentions, or expectations that were decided from a past viewpoint. These events might or might not have actually happened.
• Structure
• Function
• Example
• was/were going to
• An intention or plan decided in the past (often unfulfilled)
• We were going to discuss my career trajectory, but we ran out of time.
• was/were about to
• An action that was going to happen very soon in the past
• I was about to ask for feedback when the Slack connection dropped.
• would
• A prediction or promise made from a past perspective
• My manager promised she would help me transition to a hands-on role.
• was/were supposed to
• An expectation, rule, or planned arrangement that often didn't happen
• Our skip-level meeting was supposed to take place in Chicago yesterday.
• was/were to
• A formal arrangement, destiny, or command in the past
• The team was to complete the system migration before the weekend.
• Remember
• Use 'was/were going to' to describe past intentions that did not necessarily happen.
• Use 'was/were about to' for immediate future actions in the past, often interrupted by another event.
• Use 'would' as the past equivalent of 'will' to express predictions, promises, or future habits from a past perspective.
• Use 'was/were supposed to' when an expected plan or duty was not realized as intended.
• Examples
• I was going to give you a heads-up about the database migration, but I got distracted.
• The engineer was about to open up about his frustrations when the video call suddenly disconnected.
• We knew the recurring meetings would become a force multiplier for our engineering team in Austin.
• Common mistakes
• I would to ask you about my career aspirations, but I was put on the spot.
• I was going to ask you about my career aspirations, but I was put on the spot.
• The team was about to launching the update when the London server crashed.
• The team was about to launch the update when the London server crashed.

Complete the sentences

• I (be about to) ____ explain my career aspirations when the internet connection in our Seattle office failed.
• We (be going to) ____ set a concrete agenda, but we spent the entire one-on-one discussing the urgent server outage.
• My manager said she (will) ____ help me transition to a hands-on role in the cloud team next quarter.
• The skip-level meeting (be supposed to) ____ happen on Tuesday, but the VP had to reschedule it due to a board meeting.
• We (be to) ____ review the system architecture together, but the emergency patch changed our priorities.
• I (be going to) ____ brush off the minor bug, but my senior colleague advised me to address it immediately.

Sources: photo by Thirdman on Pexels