Present Simple, Future Time, Future Constructions – Is ‘I’m 20 Years Old Next Month’ Incorrect?

future-constructionsfuture-timepresent-simple

Is it incorrect to say

I'm 20 years old next month.

I'm learning through an English app. It says that the sentence above is incorrect and the correct answer is

I shall be 20 years old next month.

There were 4 choices to this question in the app:

I (am/shall/shall be/will) 20 years old next month.

I thought present simple is appropriate there since this tense can be used to describe the future.

Best Answer

You certainly can use the present tense (I am, he is, we are, etc) about a scheduled event, and many people do so when discussing a forthcoming birthday. I am sixty tomorrow, I am fifty in March, I am fifty in two years, I am forty in four weeks, I am 35 in a couple of months. You can also say (e.g.) 'I will be 26 in a few weeks', and British users may well use 'shall', which is more formal.

We use the present simple for something scheduled:

We have a lesson next Monday. The train arrives at 6.30 in the morning.
The holidays start next week.
It's my birthday tomorrow.

Talking about the future (British Council)

Wrexham MP Ian Lucas will stand down at next election - 11 Oct 2019 — "I am 60 next year. I have been an MP since I was 40. I think the time is right for me to choose to follow a different path in the years to come" (BBC)

Ex-soldier from Hornchurch in diving world record bid: 14 Feb 2016 — He said: “I am 50 next year and so this is my last chance to get the record. I want to stay underwater for five days." Hornchurch Recorder (Essex newspaper).

On the the more formal side, from the Letters of CH Spurgeon (1834 - 1892), a British preacher and religious writer:

May the everlasting arms be underneath you! I breathe for you a loving, tender prayer,—" Lord, comfort Thy dear servant, and when he departs, may it be across a dried-up river into the land of living fountains!" I am fifty next Thursday, and you are near your Jubilee. In this we are alike; but Jesus is the highest joy. Into the Father's hands I commit you, "until the day break, and the shadows flee away." Your loving brother, C. H. SPURGEON.

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