It is always dangerous making predictions about languages. Who would have dared suggest, a thousand years ago, that Latin would today be of such little consequence? And the same tentativeness must apply to predictions about the future formal character of English. But let me make a couple of guesses. For example, given the difficulty that many foreign learners have in pronouncing interdental fricatives (as in thin,this) I would not be surprised to see them disappear completely within the next fifty years (they are already gone in some accents, such as Cockney and Irish). And in grammar, I can see several uncountable nouns developing a countable use – usages such as informations, for example, which are widespread in second/foreign language situations. Some people might think these ‘un-English’, but in fact informations was in English once: an information and informations can be traced back to Middle English, and are found in Chaucer, Shakespeare, Swift, and many other authors. It may only be a matter of time before they are back