will be + VERBing (future continuous)

On the internet, the most common present participles after ‘will be‘ are as follows:

The common ones after ‘shall be‘:


In the English Grammar Profile, there are three overlapping points in the category of FUTURE CONTINUOUS.

Point 9 is A2 and defined as:

AFFIRMATIVE WITH ‘WILL’

This is elaborated with usage at the same level at A2 point 21:

 FUTURE ARRANGEMENTS with ‘will’ to talk about an event or action in progress at a specified time in the future.

However, point 37 is B1 and defined as:

AFFIRMATIVE ‘will’ and ‘shall’


A search in iWeb corpus for:

will be _VVG

1 WILL BE USING 47825
2 WILL BE WORKING 37998
3 WILL BE LOOKING 37841
4 WILL BE TAKING 30568
5 WILL BE MAKING 27553
6 WILL BE GOING 26088
7 WILL BE COMING 23461
8 WILL BE GETTING 22630
9 WILL BE PLAYING 16918
10 WILL BE HOSTING 16492

During the journey, we will be hosting a special guest.

listen

11 WILL BE JOINING 13295
12 WILL BE RUNNING 13248
13 WILL BE ATTENDING 12165
14 WILL BE OFFERING 10981
15 WILL BE ADDING 10969
16 WILL BE MOVING 10919
17 WILL BE GIVING 10414
18 WILL BE RETURNING 9764
19 WILL BE SHARING 9327
20 WILL BE PERFORMING 9225
21 WILL BE PROVIDING 9093
22 WILL BE HOLDING 8878
23 WILL BE BUYING 8848
24 WILL BE RELEASING 8802
25 WILL BE HOPING 8156
26 WILL BE WATCHING 7835
27 WILL BE BRINGING 7730
28 WILL BE PAYING 7521
29 WILL BE WAITING 7497
30 WILL BE TRYING 7454
31 WILL BE STARTING 7134
32 WILL BE RECEIVING 7050
33 WILL BE ORDERING 6943
34 WILL BE STAYING 6933
35 WILL BE LEAVING 6891
36 WILL BE COMPETING 6590
37 WILL BE TALKING 6568
38 WILL BE PRESENTING 6459
39 WILL BE SPENDING 6451
40 WILL BE POSTING 6318
41 WILL BE HEADING 6123
42 WILL BE SHOWING 6115
43 WILL BE SENDING 5993
44 WILL BE PUTTING 5904
45 WILL BE SPEAKING 5790
46 WILL BE TRAVELING 5746
47 WILL BE VISITING 5462
48 WILL BE CELEBRATING 5459
49 WILL BE LAUNCHING 5412
50 WILL BE SEEING 5389
51 WILL BE SELLING 5389
52 WILL BE DISCUSSING 5313
53 WILL BE WEARING 5276
54 WILL BE OPENING 5089
55 WILL BE KEEPING 4808
56 WILL BE HELPING 4564
57 WILL BE PARTICIPATING 4489
58 WILL BE ASKING 4417
59 WILL BE CREATING 4394
60 WILL BE FACING 4370
61 WILL BE LIVING 4368
62 WILL BE SERVING 4361
63 WILL BE TEACHING 4309
64 WILL BE WRITING 4254
65 WILL BE FOCUSING 4201
66 WILL BE MEETING 3930
67 WILL BE PURCHASING 3865
68 WILL BE LEARNING 3837
69 WILL BE COVERING 3832
70 WILL BE FOLLOWING 3799
71 WILL BE UPDATING 3660
72 WILL BE CONDUCTING 3602
73 WILL BE ARRIVING 3497
74 WILL BE SITTING 3405
75 WILL BE TRAVELLING 3396
76 WILL BE READING 3372
77 WILL BE CHANGING 3369
78 WILL BE APPEARING 3338
79 WILL BE BUILDING 3257
80 WILL BE SEEKING 3245
81 WILL BE ENTERING 3235
82 WILL BE DRIVING 3170
83 WILL BE HITTING 3150
84 WILL BE FLYING 3113
85 WILL BE LEADING 3078
86 WILL BE CALLING 2973
87 WILL BE REPLACING 2966
88 WILL BE CLOSING 2911
89 WILL BE DEALING 2884
90 WILL BE SUPPORTING 2854
91 WILL BE CARRYING 2837
92 WILL BE CHECKING 2832
93 WILL BE HAPPENING 2818
94 WILL BE OPERATING 2780
95 WILL BE MISSING 2763
96 WILL BE FIGHTING 2749
97 WILL BE EXHIBITING 2693
98 WILL BE ROLLING 2605
99 WILL BE WALKING 2605
100 WILL BE INTRODUCING 2499

‘Shall’ is clearly less used at B1.

1 SHALL BE BINDING 1917
2 SHALL BE USING 257
3 SHALL BE LOOKING 225
4 SHALL BE MAKING 126
5 SHALL BE TAKING 117
6 SHALL BE CONTROLLING 115
7 SHALL BE GOING 112
8 SHALL BE WORKING 86
9 SHALL BE WATCHING 80
10 SHALL BE ORDERING 75


A search in the MOVIE corpus for:

*ll_VM _VBI _V*G

shows us that the contracted form is by far more common:

1 ‘LL BE WAITING 1251

I‘ll be waiting for you.

listen

2 ‘LL BE SEEING 937
3 ‘LL BE GOING 798
4 ‘LL BE COMING 546
5 ‘LL BE DOING 462
6 ‘LL BE LEAVING 454
7 ‘LL BE TAKING 424
8 ‘LL BE GETTING 394
9 ‘LL BE LOOKING 391
10 WILL BE WAITING 357
11 ‘LL BE WATCHING 325
12 ‘LL BE WORKING 317
13 WILL BE COMING 284
14 ‘LL BE NEEDING 255
15 ‘LL BE STAYING 232
16 ‘LL BE RUNNING 193
17 ‘LL BE MAKING 185
18 ‘LL BE HAVING 179
19 ‘LL BE HEARING 179

You‘ll be hearing from my lawyer.

listen

*Note in the English Vocabulary Profile:

hear from sb =

B1 If you hear from someone, you get a letter, a message, or a telephone call from them, or they tell you something.

20 ‘LL BE SITTING 177


One of the problems with the EGP is that there are many range points for some structures depending on vocabulary. Some such as the point on this page do not have a range description.  How do they choose or validate which structures deserve extra range entries?

We believe that every structure is equally deserving.

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