Learn English – what’s the meaning of ‘we’ll go out when it stops raining.’

grammarquestions

we'll go out when it stops raining.

I wonder the meaning and usage of 'will' at this sentence.

I think it's not predicting but offering (meaning 'shall we go out when it stops raining?').

Am I correct?

Best Answer

Will refers to things that are expected to happen in the future.

The speaker expects it to stop raining in the future.

When you want something, you typically don't have it yet (otherwise you wouldn't be talking about wanting it), but it's something you want to have in the future. So logically will works for intentions and commands.

You are right in that it's ambiguous.

We don't really know if the the speaker is wanting to go out when it stops raining, or if someone/something is going to make them move outside when it stops raining. Previous sentences would reveal that.

To disambiguate:

I { want us to | hope that we } go out when it stops raining (this is what I want to do when it stops raining.)

We'll be moving out when it stops raining (someone/thing else will make us move when the rain stops.)