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I have stumbled upon it in this video. It is at 42 second.

I know things can get overwhelming when you are out of school, there are no more grades, and all of a sudden people are talking about five-year plans when it feels like you don't know what is happening in five weeks.

I am aware that the present continuous can be used to talk about future plans, but it doesn't appear to have been used in that sense. Would the meaning change if the speaker say ...what will happen...?

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  • It wouldn't sound as good, stylistically. It's contrasting how you might feel in the future with how you're feeling now (not in the immediate future). At least in terms of your knowledge of things. So, the present is more appropriate in terms of contrast. In particular because it's contrasting an existing feeling with only a potential one. (How you have felt, and will likely continue to feel, about about changes that happen to you in a five-week span.) Jul 8, 2019 at 21:44
  • I am sorry, but I cannot get my head around it. Could you please give some examples? Jul 9, 2019 at 5:26
  • To paraphrase for the point of discussion: Discussing plans for five years in the future is crazy when you don't even know how you feel about what's happening within any given five weeks. Jul 9, 2019 at 7:00
  • I am really sorry, but I still cannot get why I cannot use the future simple or the future progressive in the sentence. Many books say that we can use the present continuous to talk about thing that will happen in the future, they are alread planned. For examle: "I am going home in five weeks." That could mean that I have already bought the ticket. It appears it haven't used in this sense in the video. I still cannot understand why the present continuous was used there. Jul 9, 2019 at 7:39
  • You can use a future tense.. I'm simply saying that the present tense isn't wrong. I'm also saying that the meaning of the sentence would change. Why it was used would be up to the author to answer. Jul 9, 2019 at 7:42

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I am aware that the present continuous can be used to talk about future plans,

That's right.

but it doesn't appear to have been used in that sense.

That's wrong. It has been used exactly in that sense.

The quote says:

...people are talking about five-year plans when it feels like you don't know what is happening in five weeks.

In the context in which the present progressive form is used, the speaker's clearly talking about 'future plans'.

Would the meaning change if the speaker say ...what will happen...?

You could use will happen instead here, but the use of will denotes the speaker's subjective conviction rather than 'plans'. Therefore, using will wouldn't fit the context given as closely as using the present progressive does.

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It's very simple - Present Continuous is also used to talk about the near future (keep in mind that near is a relative concept; what is near for some can be far for others, and so sentences can vary).

In your example, they even stress that it is the near future that they are talking about

five year plan vs in five weeks time.

And as such, when we talk about the near future we usually use the Present Continuous, while Future Simple is mostly used to talk about things that you promise.

If we took one of the most common verbs there are - go and put it together with a very common word that denotes future such as tomorrow- and the phrase next week.

A Quick Ngram search easily shows how common would be be+going vs will go.

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If you don't know 'what will happen' in five weeks that describes a state of ignorance that might be temporary. In the context of the quoted sentence,'it feels like you don't know what is happening in five weeks' refers to a permanent sense of ignorance about the near future. How can anyone engage with five year plans when they feel they can't think even five weeks ahead? Not five weeks from now, five weeks from any time.

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