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这个 星期五 晚上 我们 要 去 酒吧

Zhège Xīngqīwǔ wǎnshang wǒmen yào qù jiǔbā

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is translated as:

We're going to a bar this Friday night.

What makes this future tense vs the verb want?

What makes this future tense vs the verb want?

If it happened in the past, the sentence would be "这个 星期五 晚上 我们 去了 酒吧" - 了 indicates the action is completed

"这个 星期五" (this Friday) apparently refers to the up coming Friday

• 我们 要 去 酒吧 could mean "we need to go to a bar" or "we want to go a bar"

We cannot be sure without more context, but with the information of '这个星期五' we can translate 'need to' or 'want to' as 'will'

grammar topic 能愿动词 : ,see e.g. ＂图解基础汉语语法＂42 能愿动词 （一）想、要、得 １。＂想＂和＂要＂都可以表示愿望和打算。格式 想／要＋做什么 她想／要继续学习，她想／要当博士，现在不想工作。A：下课后你去哪儿？B：我要去银行。你去吗？A：我不想去，我要去图书馆。 注意／Attention：表示将来真要发生的事情，多用＂要＂。 ２。＂得＂和＂要＂（１）＂得＂有应该、需要的意思，也可以换作＂要＂。格式 得／要＋怎么样（做）你是学生，你得／要努力学习。（应该）从北京到上海得／要飞两个小时。（需要）
bkrs：要：V (3) 想要, 希望 [wish to; want to] (7) 即将来临 [be going to]。 如: 要下雨了

There is no future tense in Chinese grammar. Plans and expectations for the future are therefore expressed with words like 要.

If you think about it, saying "we will go to the bar" only means that you now plan or want to go to the bar. You can't know if you actually go until it's done. The English word "will" originally also meant "want", after all.