Learn English – Present tense vs. future tense following a conditional

conditionalsfuturepresent-tensetenses

  1. If you ask without any background, many people are likely to assume you are just too lazy to do the work yourself.
  2. If you ask without any background, many people will likely assume you are just too lazy to do the work yourself.

Shouldn't (2) be better than (1)?

I searched for "future tense vs. present tense", but didn't find anything helpful in reference to the posed problem.

Furthermore, I found on grammar.ccc that an 'if + present tense' clause should be followed by a main clause of the form 'will + infinitive/present tense/imperative'; so, at least according to that reliable source, (1) would be wrong.

Best Answer

If-clauses that predict the future are commonly followed by a main clause with will + infinitive:

If you ask without any background, many people will assume you are just too lazy ... .

What complicates the present example is the use of the word likely. This word already has a future implication so there is no need to use will too. For example:

He is likely to be late = It is probable that he will be late.

For this reason the first of the OP's sentence is perfectly acceptable.

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