Content introduction modal verbs can 11 may 18

orders and instructions, often official (frequently in reported speech).


E.g. I just mention it because you said I was to give you all the details I could.

Norman says I am to leave you alone. All junior officers are to report to the colonel at once.

The Prime Minister is to go to Paris next week. (Daily Worker, London)
In this meaning to be to is found is affirmative and negative sentences and followed by the simple infinitive.

3. 
   something that is destined to happen
   

E.g. He was to be my teacher and friend for many years to come.

He did not know at the time that he was never to see his native place again.

How was I to know that I was going to meet a raging beauty?

It has been a great blow to me that you haven’t been able to follow me in my business as I followed by father. Three generations, that would have been. But it wasn’t to be.

This meaning of to be to is rendered in Russian as суждено. It is mainly found in the past tense and its application is limited to narration. It occurs in affirmative and negative sentences and is followed by the simple infinitive.

4.