What is present tense for future events?
Why do people in the USA, in the UK, say We leave tomorrow at 6pm but it will rain tomorrow at 6pm? What kind of scenario, if any, would make the rain sentence sound natural?
Why do you have to vote for a politician before the election?
Why do some airlines even give a flight for Friday at 7:00pm? Is completely known for sure, whereas you are only predicting that it might rain. How can you predict the weather forecast when rain will come?
I realize that it will rain tomorrow (March 26th), til you drop you to bed, and even if it starts before 6pm it seems wrong, but for the same reason Ham and Bacon stated —it’s not a known thing. In the former example, though, you’re technically describing a schedule, something that exists in the present, so the present tense can be appropriately used there.
In addition to the possibility linked to the surety prediction you advocated in the previous replies, you might also argue that you will never know with a 100% confidence that the flight will actually leave at 6pm today.
If the airline is taking a train at 6pm tomorrow (like the rest of the
flights, the flight schedules to make it available) the technically correct usage would be – “The flight is scheduled to leave at 6pm today”. “As
per the schedule, the flight departs at 6pm tomorrow.” “But
for all purposes of common usage, the sentence you quoted in the question suffices for audience communication.
If there is a situation in which Earth is raining, it would sound appropriate, coming from a soothsayer, an oracle or an oracle, or a psychic. My question would be the same. What would you suggest to them? I guess it is within their business obligations to use such sentences to sound mighty-sure and give themselves an aura of invincibility against nature’s vagaries.
Would I be at a disadvantage to see or hear such sentences?
