Listening transcript · Episode 222

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B1–B2Everyday EnglishAbout 5 min + dynamic ads5 PDF versions available

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Martin, I have finished my email, but the last sentence looks strange.

Read it to me.

I look forward to see you next week.

I understand you perfectly.

But is there a more natural way to write it?

Yes, and changing one small part makes the difference.

Today we will fix that sentence in five minutes.

Welcome to Fix It in Five, from Your English Toolbox.

The natural sentence is, I look forward to seeing you next week.

I look forward to seeing you next week.

Look forward to means to feel pleased or excited about something that will happen in the future.

You can look forward to a holiday, a meal, or a conversation.

I look forward to our meeting.

Our meeting is a thing, so it comes after to.

But what happens when the next idea is an action?

Use the ing form of the verb.

So we say, I look forward to seeing you.

Not, I look forward to see you.

The small word to is part of the expression look forward to.

In this expression, it is followed by a noun or an ing form.

Compare these two sentences.

I look forward to the meeting.

I look forward to meeting you.

Which sentence names the event, and which describes an action?

The first uses a noun, the meeting.

The second uses an action, meeting you.

Here is another useful example for a message.

I look forward to hearing from you.

That means you hope to receive a reply or news from the other person.

It is common at the end of a polite email.

You do not need to use it after every message.

With a friend, see you soon may sound warmer and simpler.

For a work email, I look forward to hearing from you may fit well.

Now imagine you have arranged a trip.

You can say, I am looking forward to visiting the city.

This uses am looking, but the next verb is still visiting.

I am looking forward to visiting the city.

You might also say, we are looking forward to working with your team.

That can be useful when a new project is about to begin.

But what if you want to mention the person after hearing?

Use from when you mean receiving a reply from that person.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Compare that with, I look forward to hearing your news.

Here, your news is the thing I want to hear.

Both sentences are possible, but they focus on different things.

In the first, I expect a response from you.

In the second, I am interested in the news you have to share.

We can also make the sentence more specific.

I look forward to hearing about your trip.

That tells your friend what you are excited to hear about.

The ing form stays the same in all three examples.

There is also a short form you may see at the end of an email.

Looking forward to seeing you.

The person has left out I am, but the meaning is clear from the context.

It is still looking forward to seeing, with seeing in the ing form.

For a complete sentence, you can write, I am looking forward to seeing you.

Choose the version that suits the tone of your message.

Now compare look forward to with a different expression.

I want to see you next week.

After want to, we use the base form see in this sentence.

But after look forward to, the action takes the ing form.

I look forward to seeing you next week.

The same small word appears in both expressions, but it belongs to different structures.

Remembering the whole phrase will help you choose the form that follows.

Let us try a quick repair together.

I look forward to meet your family.

Which word needs to change?

Meet becomes meeting.

I look forward to meeting your family.

Now choose the form that completes this message.

I am looking forward to, hear or hearing, from you.

Hearing.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

And if you use a noun, there is no need to add an ing verb.

I am looking forward to the weekend.

Now we can finish my email.

What will you write?

I look forward to seeing you next week.

Perfect.

On the episode page, you can read both versions side by side and practise the corrected sentence.

The link is in the description.

Thanks for learning with us.

See you next time.

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