italki - "This December" - present or future? As part of a grammar test, I have to fill in the blank in the f

Olga_L

"This December" - present or future? As part of a grammar test, I have to fill in the blank in the following sentence: "It's _________ this December". a) is b) is being c) is going to be I understand that "is being" does not work here at all, and I think the right answer is "it is going to be" and that means that it's not December yet, but we are making a prediction for December (the future). But how would I say it if it was December now? "It's cold this month" ? Can I plug in the word "December" to the sentence somehow? Thanks.Ah! I'm sorry I missed one word in the sentence. It was "It ____ cold this December".

Feb 7, 2012 5:22 AM

Answers · 7

REWRITE: It ____ this December. This is like a trick question, because many of us in conversation would say, "It's this December." But the meaning of this is: "It's [going to be] this [coming] December." (SIMPLE FUTURE for an activity planned or talked about earlier)

February 7, 2012

You're right. "Is being" wouldn't work here. "It is going to be this December" makes sense, but it could still be "It is this December." English is my native language, and this is giving me a little trouble, because it could be either answer depending on what question is being asked to yield this answer. If I had to choose, I would choose "It is this December" because it sounds like this could be the answer to a question such as "When is the concert?"

February 7, 2012

Thank you, Dan!

February 28, 2012

In real life, it is more common to say, "It is cold this month." You could say, "This is a cold December." In this case, I am comparing this December to past Decembers.

February 28, 2012