Lesson B2 · Upper-intermediate Grammar

The Weekend We Had Planned: Future-in-the-Past Practice

Read a plan and later diary to distinguish past expectations from actual outcomes.

10 min read 1,752 words Updated Oct 26, 2026

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B2 • About 30 minutes. Match original future plans with a later report. Distinguish intentions, schedules and imminent actions. Avoid inferring cancellation without evidence. Retell changed plans from a consistent past viewpoint.

Friday: café / arrival 11:00 / better weather by lunch. Saturday outcome: boat shed / arrival 11:20 / rain until 15:00. Camera and call outcomes: not stated. — Mobile-friendly teaching diagram. The same information is available as selectable text in the resource.

Friday plan and Monday diary

Friday plan, 18:00. Nia and I are going to spend Saturday near Lake Rowan. We will leave home at ten and take the local bus. The bus is due to arrive at the lake at eleven. We are going to meet Ellis at the café at eleven fifteen. Nia says the weather will improve by lunchtime. I am going to bring a picnic, and Ellis is going to bring a camera. The gallery is scheduled to open at two. We hope to look inside before returning home. I also intend to buy a postcard, but that is not essential to our plan. Nia plans to call her sister after lunch.

Monday diary. At ten on Saturday, we were about to leave when Ellis called. The café was closed for maintenance, so we agreed to meet by the boat shed instead. We left home at ten ten and caught a later bus. It reached the lake at eleven twenty. Nia had thought the weather would improve by lunchtime, but rain continued until three. I had been going to bring a picnic, but I left it at home and we bought sandwiches. Ellis met us by the boat shed at eleven thirty. The gallery opened at two as scheduled, and we visited it. We returned home at five. This entry does not record whether Ellis brought his camera, whether I bought a postcard, or whether Nia made her call.

Keep a three-column grid: original plan, expectation as reported from the past, actual outcome. Some rows have no confirmed outcome. A named plan is evidence of intention, not proof of completion. All places and events are fictional.

Retell without filling the gaps

In this lesson, use the Friday plan to establish intentions and the Monday diary to establish outcomes. For example, “We were going to meet at the café” records the original location; “but we met by the boat shed” records the change. Both parts matter. Avoid adding disappointment, blame or extra events that the diary does not mention.

Notice the past anchor in each report. Friday’s will becomes would when reporting the expectation from that past viewpoint. Scheduled arrangements may use was due to or was scheduled to. Were about to fits the moment at the door. These forms are not interchangeable with a habitual would about repeated childhood visits.

What was expected?

Match the Friday plan to a faithful past-viewpoint report.

Answer on paper, then open the explanations below. Enable JavaScript to check answers here.

1 Friday: “We are going to meet Ellis at the café.”

Choose one answer.

We were going to meet Ellis at the café. We met Ellis at the café.

Answer and explanation

We were going to meet Ellis at the café.

The correct answer reports the intention. The alternative falsely presents the planned café meeting as an actual event.

2 Nia said: “The weather will improve by lunchtime.”

Choose one answer.

Nia knew the weather had improved by lunchtime. Nia thought the weather would improve by lunchtime.

Answer and explanation

Nia thought the weather would improve by lunchtime.

Would preserves the future expectation. Knew and had improved would add certainty and change the time relation.

3 Friday: “Ellis is going to bring a camera.”

Choose one answer.

Ellis was going to bring a camera. Ellis had definitely brought a camera.

Answer and explanation

Ellis was going to bring a camera.

The Friday source states Ellis’s intention only. The diary leaves the camera outcome unrecorded.

4 Friday timetable: the bus arrives at eleven.

Choose one answer.

The bus arrived at eleven. The bus was due to arrive at eleven.

Answer and explanation

The bus was due to arrive at eleven.

Due to reports the scheduled arrival. The diary gives a different actual arrival time, eleven twenty.

What actually happened?

Use the Monday diary, including its explicit limits.

Answer on paper, then open the explanations below. Enable JavaScript to check answers here.

5 Did they meet at the café?

Choose one answer.

Yes; they met there at eleven fifteen. No; they met by the boat shed. Not stated.

Answer and explanation

No; they met by the boat shed.

The diary explicitly changes the meeting location and confirms the boat-shed meeting at eleven thirty.

6 Did the gallery open at two?

Choose one answer.

No, it stayed closed. Not stated. Yes, as scheduled.

Answer and explanation

Yes, as scheduled.

The diary states that the gallery opened at two and that they visited it.

7 Did Ellis bring the camera?

Choose one answer.

Not stated. Yes, because he planned to. No, because the café was closed.

Answer and explanation

Not stated.

The final diary sentence explicitly leaves this outcome unrecorded. Neither the plan nor the café closure answers it.

8 Did Nia call her sister after lunch?

Choose one answer.

Yes, because the plan says so. Not stated. No, because it rained.

Answer and explanation

Not stated.

The diary does not record the call. Rain provides no evidence about whether it happened.

Choose the precise form

Choose the form that matches the stated kind of expectation.

Answer on paper, then open the explanations below. Enable JavaScript to check answers here.

9 Choose the phrase emphasising immediate-before-action meaning: “At the door with bags in hand, they ___ leave when Ellis called.”

Choose one answer.

were planning to were due to were about to

Answer and explanation

were about to

Were about to explicitly describes imminent departure. Were planning to expresses intention; were due to describes scheduled timing.

10 The timetable said eleven. Choose the phrase that explicitly describes a scheduled time: “The bus ___ arrive then.”

Choose one answer.

was due to was about to used to

Answer and explanation

was due to

Was due to reports the schedule. Was about to describes imminence, and used to a former habit. The diary separately records the actual eleven-twenty arrival.

11 Nia believed that the weather ___ improve by lunch.

Choose one answer.

was about would going

Answer and explanation

would

A past belief about a later event takes would + base verb in this report.

12 The writer had a personal intention to bring food. “I ___ bring a picnic.”

Choose one answer.

would to was due at was going to

Answer and explanation

was going to

Was going to is appropriate for the stated personal plan. The diary then explains that it changed.

Repair the retelling

Choose a correction that preserves viewpoint and evidence.

Answer on paper, then open the explanations below. Enable JavaScript to check answers here.

13 “They were going to meet at the café, so they met there.”

Choose one answer.

They were going to meet at the café, but they met by the boat shed. They were going to meet at the café, so the diary is wrong.

Answer and explanation

They were going to meet at the café, but they met by the boat shed.

The diary provides the changed outcome. The original sentence wrongly treats intention as completion.

14 “Nia thought it would improved.”

Choose one answer.

Nia thought it would to improve. Nia thought it would improve.

Answer and explanation

Nia thought it would improve.

Would requires the base form improve. The report remains an expectation.

15 Which sentence describes a repeated habit, rather than this weekend’s past expectation?

Choose one answer.

As children, they would visit the lake every summer. On Friday, they thought they would visit the lake on Saturday.

Answer and explanation

As children, they would visit the lake every summer.

As children and every summer establish repetition. The alternative sentence has a past thought about one later event.

16 “The camera plan proves Ellis brought it.” Choose a faithful replacement.

Choose one answer.

Ellis forgot it because it rained. Ellis was going to bring it; the diary does not say whether he did.

Answer and explanation

Ellis was going to bring it; the diary does not say whether he did.

The correct answer separates intention from the explicitly unknown outcome. The alternative invents both forgetting and a cause.

Write, compare and revise

Your turn · self-review

Independent writing

Write your own response first, then compare the model and use the self-review checklist below. The model is one possible answer, not a script to copy.

Practice only. Your writing stays on this page; it is not submitted or saved.

1Write 110–140 words to tell a friend about the weekend. Use at least three future-in-the-past forms. State explicit outcomes for two plans, and preserve at least one outcome as unknown. Optional: rehearse your account aloud before editing it.
Model answer and explanation
On Friday, we were going to meet Ellis at the café near Lake Rowan on Saturday. At ten, we were about to leave when he called to say the café was closed. We changed the meeting point to the boat shed and left home at ten ten. The bus was due to arrive at eleven, but our later bus reached the lake at eleven twenty. Nia had thought the weather would improve by lunchtime; in fact, it rained until three. I had planned to bring a picnic, but I left it at home, so we bought sandwiches. The gallery opened at two, and we visited it. Ellis intended to bring a camera, but the diary does not say whether he did.

Self-review and transfer

The model separates planned and actual location, scheduled and actual arrival, and forecast and observed weather. It uses were going to, were about to, was due to and would. Check that every outcome comes from the diary. Then draw an arrow from each past anchor to the later expected event. A correct sentence can still be an inaccurate report if it silently turns a plan into a completed action.

Companion resource: Future in the Past: Was Going To, Would and Was About To.

Related references for further study: The Broken Printer: B1 Future Forms in Messages; Our Street Then and Now: Used To and Would Practice; An Unexpected Visitor: A2 Past Continuous Listening.