Experts believe that in the near future the problems that prevent us from exploiting fully the food, minerals, and energy sources of the sea will be largely solved
If I could speak Spanish, I would spens the next year studying in Mexico
=> Should the article “the” in these two sentences be omitted?
I feel,
Haihao, you’re going to have to show me a sentence where “in future” is correct, because I don’t believe you. It’s possible to use “in future” where “future” is an adjective (“in future years”, “in future articles”, etc.), but I don’t think you can leave out the article if “future” is a noun.
That’s right.
Thank you, Jamie, but you really made me ponder for a while. 
However I still think such a sentence as ‘Don’t do it again in future’ = ‘Don’t do it again from now on’ is possible where ‘in future’ acts as an adverbial phrase.
Haihao
No, Haihao. “Don’t do it again in future,” is a grammatically incorrect, Chinglish-sounding sentence. It absolutely must be, “Don’t do it again in the future.” There’s no question about it.
I think you’ll find that in BrEng, both these are correct:
In future, I’ll thank you not to interfere in my affairs.
I’ll thank you not to interfere in my affairs in future.
If you keep basing all your replies on your own variant, Jamie, we’ll never get anywhere.
Go search [color=blue]in future , in the BNC. Don’t forget to add a space before the comma.
Yes, that’s correct in BrE use, and also in NigE. It’s an adverbial phrase used and as a discourse marker when fronted.
Hear it appears as a tail and as fronted:
“And I actually found that it was, it was better to actually talk to them than just send them Press release. their press release, so I might do that in future , send out a release and then follow it up on the phone call.”
Amnesty International meeting. Rec. on 11 Feb 1992
…
“A Hindu, a Buddhist and a lion-tamer chanced to meet, in a circus on the Indo-Chinese border. (He breaks out.) They’re taking us for granted! Well, I won’t stand for it! In future , notice will be taken. (He wheels again to face into the wings.)”
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Stoppard, Tom.
…
As for the latter, you can’t get less Chinglish that Tom Stoppard. Maybe Jamie’s never heard of Mr Stoppard.
You might also find a few examples in the BYU American Corpus. I did.
Hi, Jamie
I saw this CNN news header: Digital age may bring total recall in future - CNN.com
Do you think it is the case where (magazine) headers are “shortened” by cutting out articles ? Or is it a simple mistake
.
‘In future’ is OK, I think; I see it and use it sometimes:
in future (adverb)
after this; from now on
Example: Don’t do that in future.
.
And in the near future should be taken as an expression?
Who can explain why the next year?
Indeed it is.
It means from now on (perceived as no gap between the present time and the future.) “In the future” (possibly perceived as a gap between the present moment and the future.)
Hi,
‘In future’ often has the sense of ‘next time’ as in: In view of the delays experienced at airports where security checks take a long time I have decided in future to go by train when I go on holiday. ‘In the future’ is much more expansive as in: In the future motorists will be buying cars that have much better fuel efficiency than is the case at the moment.
Alan
And why the next year? in If I could speak Spanish, I would spens the next year studying in Mexico
‘next year’ without ‘the’ is used as an adverbial phrase. Here, the function should be noun.
I wouldn’t advise “the” there if the meaning is “the year after this one”.
If, speaking in December 2008 for example, it means “if I could speak Spanish well by next December (Dec. 2009), I would spend the next year (2010) studying in Mexico”, the the article is OK.
Yes. It’s definitely a case where the headline is written in telegraphic language, so the article “the” is left out.
I don’t care much for middle-brow fiction of the type he writes, so my familiarity with him is limited, but I know he was born Tomáš Straussler in Czechoslovakia of parents who spoke a language with no articles. Then he was taken to Singapore, a place where people also have trouble with articles, and was still being raised completely by people who have trouble with articles, until his mother remarried in the 1940s. Much later, he received the now degraded title “Sir”, which he shares with such luminaries as Sir Ringo Starr and the very loopy Sir Elton John.
They’re not the only ones, even you find trouble in knowing when an article can or cannot be used, right? Do you imagine Alan to be a speaker of Chinglish?
Tom was around 4 when he left Singapore.
We don’t make this distinction.